


no way to make the pain play fair

by rutabega129



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:35:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 44,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22221919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rutabega129/pseuds/rutabega129
Summary: Beca didn’t want to be a cliché but god she hated high school.
Relationships: Chloe Beale & Beca Mitchell, Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell
Comments: 437
Kudos: 611





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I've had this high school AU idea in my head for a very long time. I honestly felt like I've outgrown high school AUs but this one wouldn't leave me alone. Not quite sure how many chapters this will be and the chapters will be short because I'm incapable of writing long things. I hope you guys enjoy.
> 
> Title from "Eden" by Sara Bareilles
> 
> Unbeta'd. All mistakes are mine.

“Beca, honey, time to wake up.”

Beca grumbles and tugs her blanket over her head trying to get away from her mom’s incessant poking. Her alarm rang a while ago and she knew hitting the snooze button a few times wasn’t going to stop her mom from waking her up herself.

“Beca,” her mom says more sternly. “You’re going to be late for school. Get up.” She pulls the blanket off her and the sunlight filtering into the room makes Beca squeeze her already closed eyes tighter.

“Five more minutes,” Beca grunts and blindly reaches for her blanket but it seems like her mom was holding it away from her.

“Beca, you have twenty minutes to get ready and eat breakfast. I am not in the mood to get another call from school saying that you’ve been late again. Now get up.” She swats at Beca’s butt causing her to jump up in bed.

“Mom!” Beca whines and rubs at her butt. “I’m up, geez!” She squints up at her mom who’s glaring at her with her arms crossed against her chest. “Okay, okay, I’m going,” Beca says and struggles to get up in bed. It takes her a few moments to find her phone because she shoved it under her pillows after hitting snooze for the third time.

“Now you’ve got fifteen minutes, hurry up before your breakfast gets cold.” She tosses the blanket back onto the bed before exiting Beca’s room.

Beca grumbles again but does speed up getting ready. Thankfully she was a nighttime shower kind of person otherwise she’d be really late and would have to endure her mom’s wrath even further. She curses whoever thought that teenagers need to get up at the ass crack of dawn to get to school. Getting hormonal teenagers to be functional at 7:30 in the morning was asking way too much.

Beca throws on her go to outfit of dark jeans, a black tank top, and one of her plaid shirts and makes her way downstairs while putting on all her earrings. Her mom was putting things in work bag getting ready to leave when Beca sits down to her now lukewarm breakfast.

“Your dad called,” her mom starts and Beca stabs her eggs with her fork a little too aggressively. She can feel her mom’s eyes bore in the back of her head. “He said he’s been trying to get a hold of you but you won’t answer his texts and your phone goes straight to voicemail when he calls.” She walks behind Beca and puts her hand on her chair. Beca stays quiet and shovels her breakfast down into her mouth. She can’t answer if her mouth was full. “Beca,” she says tiredly.

“I blocked him,” Beca tries to say casually but the bitterness in her voice still seeps through.

Her mom sighs and goes to sit across from her. “Honey, you’ve missed the last month of weekends with him.” Beca refuses to meet her mom’s eyes and continues to eat her breakfast. “Beca,” she tries again.

Beca opens her mouth to say not so pleasant things about her dad when she hears a honk outside. “That’s Jesse, gotta go.” She grabs her backpack and rushes outside before her mom can call her back.

Beca doesn’t feel the slightest bit guilty about ignoring her dad’s calls or messages. The divorce that started right before her freshmen year (she’s now midway through her junior year) was finalized only a year ago and the court awarded split custody between her parents Donna and Warren. Beca was supposed to spend half her time with her mom and half her time with her dad but after more fighting and negotiations and the fact Beca really _really_ didn’t want much to do with her dad, they agreed on Beca only spending weekends with him.

But even that was falling apart after her grandmother on her dad’s side passed away a few months ago after a long battle with cancer. Warren had decided to put his dad, Beca’s grandfather, into a nursing home when he became despondent after his wife died. That put a even bigger riff between Beca and Warren. She loved her grandparents with all her heart and the fact that her dad could just shut his own father in a home because he didn’t want to deal with him made Beca hate Warren that much more. On top of leaving her and her mom and starting a new family. So yes, Beca blocked him and refused to spend her designated days with him. Warren Mitchell did not deserve her time.

And now she was on her way to hell. Beca didn’t want to be a cliché but god she hated high school. The entire hierarchy between cliques and the dumb teachers thinking that giving her a detention would deter her from getting into a good college. Beca didn’t give a shit about getting into a college but she knew that would not go well with either of her parents. Warren already has an entire college fund for her but she knows there’d be stipulations to it.

Beca wasn’t exactly popular nor was she an outcast. She just kept to herself. She only counts Jesse as a friend and then she had a handful of acquaintances. She didn’t have any enemies but the cheerleaders took some weird pleasure of making her life hard. It may have to do with the fact that she was the only one in the damn school who didn’t treat them like royalty. Beca may also pick fights with them on occasion. She knows it’s immature but god Beca hated cheerleaders. What made them so special that people part like the Red Sea when they walk down the halls?

Beca slams the door shut when she gets into Jesse’s car. “Isn’t it a little too early for you to be this pissed already?” Jesse asks as he pulls out of her driveway.

She glares at him and pulls on her seatbelt. “My douche dad called my mom asking her why I’ve been ignoring him.”

Jesse nods in understanding and turns down the street. It’s less than a ten minute drive to school so he lets Beca rant.

“Maybe if he brought grandpa back home, I’ll talk to him. Maybe if he stopped being a dick. Maybe if he started being a decent dad,” Beca rants and opens her backpack to make sure she actually had everything in there. Rushing out of the house she just realized she didn’t grab her lunch. Now she has to buy gross cafeteria food. This day had barely started and Beca already wanted to punch someone.

“Have you visited him recently?” Jesses asks he turns into the school parking lot.

Beca sighs. “Yeah, a couple of days ago. At least Warren did something right and put him in an actual nice and expensive nursing home but he’s still so sad. I brought him some music I’ve been working on, that seemed to cheer him up.” Beca has been downloading all of her grandparents’ favorite music and editing them together into something new. Her grandpa seemed to cheer up when he would listen to them and tell her stories of her grandma when she was Beca’s age.

Jesse parks the car and smiles at Beca. “That’s good to hear. Sorry your dad called your mom though. I mean, at least he didn’t just show up randomly right?”

Beca rolls her eyes and gets out of the car. “God, don’t jinx it. With the way my day is going, he’d probably be waiting at the house when I come home from school.”

Beca braces herself as they enter the school and the throng of students getting to their respective classes starts pushing their way through the halls. Another thing Beca hated about high school, no one gave a shit about anyone around them. They pushed and ran into people without a care in the world. She thankfully only gets bumped into once on her way to her locker. Being small got her jostled more but it also made it easier to maneuver through the crowd. Jesse leaves her side momentarily to go to his locker but rejoins her shortly. She grabs her books for her morning classes and tries to remember if she even did her homework for chemistry. Beca shuts her locker door and turns to walk with Jesse to their first shared class but she almost loses her balances when she bumps into a body. Jesse catches her before she completely wipes out.

“Watch where you’re going, hobbit!” An angry voice says to her.

Beca rolls her eyes when she sees head cheerleader Alice Waltham glaring at her. Her fellow cheerleaders are behind her standing like soulless robots. “Oh, I’m sorry, Alice, I wasn’t aware I had to make room for both you and your massive ego.”

Alice purses her lips and gets right in Beca’s face to stare her down. “You’re a pain in my ass, Mitchell. You better watch yourself.” Beca opens her mouth to retort but Alice is already shoving past her and pushes her against the lockers. Her shoulder hits a padlock and she stops herself from crying out in pain. She did not want to give Alice the satisfaction but shit that hurt.

The rest of the cheerleaders follow after her and only one turns to check on her but she’s the last person Beca wants to see.

Chloe Beale stalls a little and looks between Beca and the cheerleaders. She looks at Beca with concerned eyes but Beca just glares at her.

“Beale!” Alice calls and just like that Chloe turns and jogs back to the group.

Beca takes a deep breath.

“Dude, are you okay?” Jesse asks reaching out to check on Beca’s shoulder.

“No,” Beca bites out and rubs her sore shoulder. Her eyes follow red hair down the hall hoping Chloe can feel the burn from her glare. “This day fucking sucks.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who has read so far! Also, updates are going to be sporadic so please be patient. :)

Beca never really believed in Murphy’s Law but after the day she was having, she was ready to fight Murphy himself. Everything that could go wrong in Beca’s day did go wrong. She did forget to complete her chemistry homework and her teacher gave her an incomplete which brought her already C minus grade in the class to a D plus. She also needed to bring a form home for her mom to sign so she could be informed that Beca was currently failing chemistry. It’s a good thing Beca perfected her mom’s signature.

She could’ve gotten some extra points if she completed the lab work during the lesson but Bumper Allen had decided to be extra douchey today. He snuck up behind her when she was measuring something in one of the glass beakers and she ended up dropping it, shattering glass all over the floor. Thankfully the teacher did see it happen and gave Bumper a week’s worth of detention for a complete disregard of classroom safety. The teacher did say Beca could complete the summary and turn that in for extra credit. It was the only good thing that came out of that mishap but not after Beca accidentally cut herself when she cleaned up the broken glass. The cut was on her thumb and the bandage made it harder for Beca to use her touch screen on her phone.

There was a pop quiz in math that Beca for sure failed. She also had to endure listening to Aubrey Posen asking their fellow classmates what they put down for each question because her dad would kill her if she didn’t pass. As if she wasn’t already a straight A student on top of being on the cheerleading team. She was slotted to take Alice’s place next year after Alice graduates. That made Aubrey even more annoying to Beca because she knows who exactly is going to be second in command next year too.

By the time lunch came, Beca was in such a bad mood, she snapped at a poor freshman who accidentally bumped into her. She had absolutely no desire to spend money on disgusting cafeteria food so she conceded that she’ll just be starving until the end of the day. Beca went to her normal table and shoved her headphones over her ears with every intention on blocking out everyone but a brown paper bag was tossed in her front of her.

“You can have my second sandwich,” Jesse says and takes a seat next to her.

Beca sighs but opens the bag and pulls out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread. “Are you still eight?” Beca asks but takes the sandwich out its plastic bag and takes a huge bite. She was _starving._

Jesse takes a bite out of his own sandwich. “Dude, PB&J is a staple. You can never be too old for it.”

Beca rolls her eyes but continues to eat it. “Thanks,” she mumbles. The bread sticks to the roof of her mouth.

“Don’t need you hangry on top of everything else you’re going through today.” Beca has been texting him expletives all day. “Wanna go to the movies with me and Benji this weekend?”

“Hell no.”

Jesse laughs and tosses her his apple too. “No one is shocked.”

They’re joined shortly by Benji and he and Jesse start their own conversation about the movie they’ll be seeing. Beca finishes her sandwich and apple and leaves to grab a soda from the vending machine. She definitely needed a caffeine kick to get through the rest of the day.

The vending machine, of course, eats her dollar. “Are you fucking kidding me?” Beca says to the vending machine before kicking it. Her toe throbs painfully shortly after. “Fuck me,” Beca says and grits her teeth. Three injuries in one day had to be some kind of record.

“Here.”

Beca jumps at the voice and turns to see Chloe holding out a can of Coke to her. “No, thank you,” Beca says coldly. She presses the Coke button again hoping the damn thing would actually dispense the soda. She hears Chloe sigh.

“Just take the Coke, you clearly want one.”

Beca punches the button again. “You have no idea what I want,” she says under her breath before finally giving it up and starts to walk back to the table completely ignoring Chloe.

“Bec, come on,” Chloe calls after her and Beca stops abruptly.

“ _Don’t_ ,” Beca spits. “Call me that.”

Chloe smiles sadly. She gives Beca the smallest of nods before turning around and walks in the opposite direction.

Beca wants to scream but takes a deep breath trying to rein in her anger. The bell rings signaling the end of their lunch hour and Beca returns to the table to grab her stuff and makes her way her next class. She brushes off Jesse’s questions of concern.

Her next class, World History, was of course the only class she shares with Chloe and when she gets to her seat, there was a can of Coke sitting at her desk. Beca sighs in defeat and takes the can and puts it in her bag. Chloe is conveniently at her desk, two seats over, one row up, not looking at her, and facing the board waiting for the class to begin.

“Alright, class, settle down,” the teacher, Ms. Henderson, says after the bell rings. “We’re about to start the group project.” A collective groan comes from the entire class. “I know, we all hate group work but I also like to see you guys suffer,” she says in jest and earns a few laughs. As far as teachers go, Ms. Henderson was the only one Beca genuinely likes. She was a younger teacher who was very nice yet still strict. She took the coursework seriously but still managed to make it more enjoyable. And she also didn’t bullshit the facts and actually called out how whitewashed their history books were. Beca heard a rumor she got a few complaints from some parents claiming she was pushing her own agenda of social justice into the classroom.

“But first, I’m going to hand back your tests from last week and some of you really need to study more. World War II was not in the 60’s.” She walks up and down the desks handing everyone’s test facedown and Beca is always thankful for that. She hated when teachers put it face up so everyone can see each other’s grades. Not that she had to worry when it came to this class. It was the only one Beca took an effort in and that was because she actually respected Ms. Henderson.

“Good job, Beca,” Ms. Henderson says to her when she puts her test down on the desk.

Beca smiles when she sees the red A on her paper and instinctively looks up to Chloe’s desk. She furrows her brow when she sees Chloe folding her test in half and stuffing it in her folder but not before seeing the red C on it.

“Alright, so in the next few days, I’ll be giving you your topics,” Ms. Henderson says once she handed them back all their tests. “And you’re obviously going to research it but the assignment is taking the topic and making it set to today’s time.” She looks up to see confused faces. “Present it like it was happening today. So use social media, online articles, hashtags, and what not.”

Beca almost laughs because it seemed like such an overused tool but it seemed simple enough. She tries to get Stacie Conrad’s attention to see if she wanted to be her partner but Ms. Henderson bursts that bubble.

“Also, you will not be choosing your partners.” More groans and protests. “They’ll be selected at random as well as your topic.”

Beca rolls her eyes. Knowing her luck, she was going to be partnered with the kid who is constantly high and she would have to do all the work.

“You’ll be given a whole two weeks to complete your project but we’ll pick topics and partners later. For now, please turn to page 103 so we can continue yesterday’s lesson.”

Beca takes diligent notes for the rest of the class but more than once feels Chloe’s eyes on her. Every single time she looks up to check, Chloe would be also taking notes. Or appeared to be at least.

Beca sighs. Actually with her luck, she’d probably be partnered with Chloe.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of shot myself in the foot with the first two chapters because I feel like this one is super anticlimactic. I hope you guys still enjoy! Also just for age clarification, both Beca and Chloe are 17 almost 18 in this fic.

“So are you going to tell me why you were extra moody at the end of lunch?”

Beca looks out the car window and pretends she didn’t hear Jesse. The day finally ended but she remembered she picked up a shift with Jesse at the music store. They only work a few days a week and usually right after school. Beca technically didn’t need a job since she had a guilt ridden dad who pretty much would get her whatever she wanted if she actually took advantage of it. But Beca wanted to start building a good resume for perspective employers. She likes to associate herself with anything music related.

Too bad Barden High had a shit music program as it was pretty much nonexistent. There was a glee club that no one really cared about and being a band geek would put her in the proximity of both the jocks and cheerleaders. Even though Beca was pretty good at picking up and learning new instruments, she did not have the mind frame to be in band. Plus the uniforms looked itchy as all hell. Working at the music store gave her access to a plethora of records, instruments, and musical equipment. She’s been eying a mixing console that was way out of her budget. As easy as it would be to get her dad to get it for her, Beca didn’t want to ask anything from him.

“The vending machine ate my dollar. I couldn’t get a Coke,” Beca answers. Jesse looks over and raises his eyebrow at the can of Coke Beca was currently drinking from. “I got this later,” Beca says to his questioning stare.

“Right,” he says skeptically. He sighs in exasperation. “It’s been almost three years, Beca, are you ever going to tell me what happened between you and Chloe?”

Beca glares at him. “Are you ever going to mind your own business?”

“Seriously?’ He says incredulously. “You guys went from being attached to the hip to ignoring each other. You wouldn’t even let me hang out with you guys in the fourth grade. You cried when the teacher had to separate you two in class because you wouldn’t stop talking to each other.”

Beca fights the treacherous smile that memory brings to her face. “Because you were a boy with cooties,” Beca deflects. “And I didn’t cry.” She totally did cry.

“Can you just tell me what Chloe did? Sometimes I feel like I’m betraying you when I interact with her.” Jesse pulls into a parking space and turns off the car. “And you know she’s coming in today and you can’t keep hiding in the back when she does. You have cashier today.”

Beca looks at him incredulously. “Since when? Luke told me I was on stocking duty today!”

“Nope, he switched it. He thinks you don’t do the cashier enough.”

Beca rolls her eyes and gets out of the car. “What a dick, I do fucking too do cashier a lot.” She had every intention to punch Luke in the balls. Because Jesse was right, Chloe is going to come in today. She had no idea how Chloe figured out her work schedule since it changes all the time but Chloe is always there when she picks up a shift but most of the time Beca was in the back so she could avoid her. Not today apparently.

“Can you just please tell me what she did?” Jesse asks again as they enter the store and make their way to the back to clock in. “I’ll switch with you.”

Beca pauses and then she punches her time into the work computer. “Nothing,” she finally says.

Jesse looks at her confused. “She did nothing and that’s why you’ve been mad at her the past three years?”

“Yeah,” Beca says bitterly. “Nothing. She did _nothing._ ”

***

3 years ago  
  


Beca squeezes the blanket under hands on the bed as she watches Chloe run around her room packing some last minute things. Chloe is babbling on and on about cheer camp and Beca is half listening and half internally freaking out. She can see how excited Chloe is as she talks. The lilt in her voice and the glint in her eyes and the fact she’s been talking a mile a minute. Beca stays quiet trying to organize her thoughts. Chloe was going to be gone for six weeks at some cheer retreat or campground for incoming freshmen cheerleaders. She’s not going to get to see or talk to her for the majority of the summer and that thought feels like a crushing weight on her heart.

The past school year has been _weird_. It was their last year of junior high before entering the hellscape that was high school. Beca couldn’t be less excited if she tried. Everyone was a lot meaner in high school and now Chloe is going to be a cheerleader. Chloe was way too sweet to be one of those girls and Beca has been bitter about it ever since Chloe told her. It’s all she’s been talking about the past few months. Not to mention the subject of boys. Chloe could not stop talking about all the _cute_ boys in their class and how much cuter they’ll be in high school. Beca didn’t quite see the appeal of what Chloe was talking about. The boys in their class barely showered and bathed in body spray to compensate for it. Her eyes would sting when they walked past her. The only boy she interacted with was Jesse and he was like her brother. But for some reason Chloe kept asking her about him whenever they’d hang out.

But Beca didn’t care about boys or cheerleaders or high school. She cared about Chloe. A lot. More than a girl should care about her best friend. The realization was gradual. Beca and Chloe have been close since they were five. Ever since Bumper Allen tried to steal Chloe’s Spider-Man lunch box claiming that comic books were for boys and boys only. Beca kicked him in the shin and he cried dropping the lunchbox. She got in serious trouble after that but Chloe told her she was her Spider-Man. They’ve been best friends ever since.

It wasn’t until they reached junior high was when Beca thought something was wrong with her. Every girl around her, including Chloe, would talk about how cute boys were and how they wish they would notice them or how Donald has huge growth spurt over the summer or how the new eighth grader was from England and has a really cute accent. Beca would watch music videos with Chloe and fake smiled when she’d tell Beca how she thought this guy was the hottest one in the band but Beca’s eyes would fall on the actress playing the band member’s girlfriend.

Beca started getting butterflies when she and Chloe would have movie nights. Her heart started beating faster when Chloe would play with her fingers. Their sleepovers had Beca wide awake staring at Chloe’s sleeping form and mentally kicked herself for being creepy. She started to feel what those girls felt in the movies Chloe would make her watch but she wasn’t falling for a boy. She was falling for her best friend.

Timing was never Beca’s strongest suit. The festering of Beca’s feelings has been bubbling in her all year and now Chloe’s was leaving for a majority of the summer. Beca would be alone with her thoughts with no one to talk to. Her mom and dad have been fighting more and sometimes her dad wouldn’t even come home. Her grandmother hasn’t been feeling well lately so they cancelled their annual summer trip to their cottage up in Michigan. She hasn’t told Chloe any of this because she didn’t want to plague the time they spent together with Beca’s woes.

But keeping her feelings inside was starting to get to her. Chloe becoming a cheerleader would change everything between them. Beca knows how the cheerleaders felt about girls like her.

“I can’t believe you’re going to be a cheerleader,” Beca says for what she feels like the millionth time. Her entire body is rigid as she sits on Chloe’s bed.

Chloe sighs and zips up her backpack. The majority of her things were already in her dad’s car ready to leave at any moment. Chloe was always a last minute packer. “Beca, how many times do I have to tell you? Nothing is going to change. I’m still going to be me. Not going to turn into the Waltham sisters.” Alice was only going to be a sophomore but her older sister Lindsey was going to be a senior and the head cheerleader. They were both awful.

Beca scoffs. “I can’t believe you’re going to be on a cheer squad with them. Remember when Alice made Aubrey eat a worm to prove she’s worthy of being a Barden Knights cheerleader next year? She puked everywhere!”

Chloe scrunches her nose at the memory. “I’m not going to let them make me eat a worm. And plus, this is the only activity in high school that has scholarship possibilities for me. And I’ve always been athletic.”

“Couldn’t you have tried out for soccer or softball if you wanted to be athletic?”

“I don’t like physical activity involving balls,” she stops when she realizes what she said Beca lets out a laugh. “You know what I mean! It’s not like we have a gymnastics team!”

“Okay Missy Pantone, I get it. I just,” Beca stops and tries to get her body to relax. Chloe was wearing Beca’s hoodie that she stole and it makes Beca’s stomach do flips. She looks so pretty. “I just feel like you’re going to forget about me in high school with your new friends.” _Forget about me when you find out that I have feelings for you, please don’t leave me._

Chloe sits down next to Beca and pokes her cheek making her involuntarily smile. “You’re so dramatic you know that?” She teases. “Why would I ever forget my Spider-Man?”

Beca blushes and her stomach flips more. “Chloe, I-“

“Chloe Penelope Beale!” Chloe’s dad bellows from downstairs. “You have to be at camp by one o’clock and it’s a two hour drive. Get your butt down here.”

“I’m coming!” Chloe yells back and turns back to Beca. “What were you saying?”

Beca feels like the walls are closing in on her. It’s only six weeks but why does she feel like Chloe is leaving her forever?

“What am I suppose do the next six weeks? Learn to knit?” Beca attempts to joke but doesn’t realize her eyes are starting to fill with tears. Everything seems like it’s hitting her at once. Chloe leaving, her growing feelings for Chloe, her parents fighting, her grandma being sick, and the fact she’s going to be alone for summer.

Chloe looks at her with the utmost concern and confusion. “Bec, what’s wrong? You’ve been really weird lately. I know you don’t like the idea of me being a cheerleader but this is getting kind of ridiculous.”

Beca shakes her head. “It’s not just that,” she says frustrated. “Everything is changing, you’re changing!”

Chloe looks at her more confused. “I’m not changing, Beca, what are you talking about? I’m still me. What’s going on with you?” Beca doesn’t realize she has squeezed the blanket into her fists until Chloe touches her hand. “Bec, seriously, what’s wrong? Why won’t you tell me? You tell me everything, I’m your best friend.”

The words hit Beca like a ton of bricks and she can’t stop the tears from falling down her face. “Chloe, I like you.”

Chloe pauses and Beca is too scared to look at her face. “You like me?” She sounds so confused and her tone makes Beca’s heart hurt more. “Bec, I-“

“Chloe!” It was Chloe’s mom this time. “You’re going to take a bus if you’re not down here in ten seconds.”

Beca takes that interruption as her escape and she quickly moves to leave the room. But Chloe being an actual athlete, has quicker reflexes, and reaches out to grab a hold of Beca’s wrist before she can leave.

“Beca, you cannot say that and just leave,” Chloe says a little frantically. 

Beca looks at her and wants to scream. “I like you, Chloe. Like you, like you. I don’t know when it happened but it just did and I don’t want things to change.” She looks down at her wrist where Chloe’s holding and pulls away.

Chloe looks genuinely at lost for words. “Beca, I,” she stops and looks like she’s trying so hard to find something to say and it makes Beca feel nauseous. “Beca, I don’t know what to say. I don’t,” Chloe takes a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say, Beca,” she repeats.

Beca just shakes her head. She didn’t know what to expect. All the scenarios in her head of telling Chloe how she felt and she had the ridiculous thought that maybe Chloe felt the same way or the opposite of Chloe telling her she was disgusting and never wanted to see her. But not knowing what to say? That was something Beca didn’t think would hurt so much.

“Look, Bec, maybe these six weeks would be good for you,” Chloe tries again. The words cut through Beca. “Maybe us being a part would be better.”

Beca laughs bitterly. “Okay,” she says quietly and then looks up to glare at Chloe. “Bye, Chloe. Have fun with your new friends.” And with that she turns to leave Chloe’s room and house.

“Beca, wait! That’s not what I meant!” Chloe chases her down the stairs and out the house but Chloe’s parents stop her.

Beca doesn’t hear what transpires as she grabs her bike and bikes as fast as she can back home.

***

Beca’s checking over an invoice when she hears the door chime signaling a customer walking in.

Chloe’s eyes meet hers briefly before she looks away sadly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for everyone who has been reading! Also I do apologize for such short chapters!

Beca tries not to pay too much attention to Chloe as she browses through the store but she can’t help but look occasionally. Chloe seems to be taking her time in the used records section as she flips through every genre like she’s not quite sure what she’s looking for. For a Thursday, the store is pretty busy so Beca doesn’t have too much time following Chloe with her eyes. It’s only when Jesse nudges her and asks her if she wanted to switch did she notice that Chloe was standing in line ready to pay.

“No I got it,” she says as she hands the current customer his receipt. Jesse nods and goes back to his tasks. Beca takes a deep breath when Chloe comes up to the counter. “Did you find everything okay?” She asks in her usual customer service voice but won’t meet Chloe’s eyes.

Chloe just nods and puts down a Bruce Springsteen record on the counter. Beca raises her eyebrow and was very tempted to ask Chloe when she became a Springsteen fan but bites her tongue and scans the stickered barcode.

“That’d be $4.25,” she says and bags the record. Chloe reaches into her pocket and hands her a crumpled five dollar bill. Beca punches the amount into the cashier and it opens the drawer. She takes out three quarters and hands them and a receipt to Chloe. “Thanks for shopping at Eden’s Records, have a nice day.”

Chloe nods again before taking her bag and leaving. Beca watches her go and feels her heart sink. “Did she say anything to you?” Jesse asks after she checks out the last few customers standing in line.

“No,” Beca says a little disappointed. “She didn’t say anything.”

\---

“Alright, it’s the moment you’ve all been dreading. Time to pick your partners and topics for your projects.” Ms. Henderson looks like she’s having too good of a time as she dramatically takes out two baseball caps and dumps folded pieces of paper in each one. “Once I’ve picked, you guys can use the last few minutes of class to get with your partners and discuss your topics.”

Beca takes a deep breath as she and the rest of class watch Ms. Henderson mix the papers in the hat before pulling out one.

“Stacie will be paired with,” she reads out loud and takes out another piece of paper. “Amy.”

“Yes!” Amy exclaims and high fives Stacie who was sitting next to her.

“And your subject will be,” Ms. Henderson reaches into the other hat. “Amelia Earhart.”

Ms. Henderson continues to pick out names and topics Beca gets a little antsy that hers and Chloe’s name has yet to be picked. There were only a handful of students left when Ms. Henderson finally pulls her name.

“And Beca will be paired with.” It seems like it takes ten years for Ms. Henderson to pull out the second piece of paper and Beca’s eyes automatically fall to Chloe. She hasn’t seen her all day, not even in the halls or at lunch. And not once as she turned to look at Beca all through class. “Chloe,” Ms. Henderson finally says and Beca’s heart jumps. “And your topic is the Salem Witch Trials.”

Chloe doesn’t turn around when her name was called but looks down briefly at her notebook planner. Once everyone was paired off, there was only about ten minutes left of class.

“Okay, everyone meet with their partners and discuss your topics. Remember you guys have two weeks to complete this. Please be thorough with your research and creative. Any source material is allowed as long as it’s legitimate and fact based.” Ms. Henderson lets everyone do their own thing and the scrapes of desks and chairs echoes through the classroom.

Beca doesn’t know if she should go to Chloe or wait for her to come to her. Chloe makes the decision for them as she walks over to Beca’s desk and sits in the one in front of her and turns around.

“Look, we should just get this done as fast as we can,” Beca blurts out once Chloe situates herself. Chloe doesn’t say anything so she continues. “Why don’t we meet after school?”

Chloe stares at her and Beca is a little unnerved she can’t read her expression. “I have practice after school,” she finally says and Beca can’t help but roll her eyes.

“Of course you do, can’t you do it after?”

Chloe sighs and opens her planner. “Look, I know you want to get this done as fast as you can to spend the least amount of time with me.” Beca opens her mouth to counter but Chloe pushes on. “And I know you physically can’t stand to be around me but I cannot afford to get a bad grade on this project. So you’re going to have to just deal with spending time with me while we work on this. Can you just mark down the days you can meet and I’ll work around your schedule?” She turns her planner around and holds out a red pen for Beca.

Beca has no idea what to say to Chloe’s little spiel but takes the pen. She looks down at the planner and sees Chloe’s schedule for the next few weeks. She was a busy person. It seemed like every day Chloe had to do something. Most of it was cheerleading practice while other days said “shelter” and a few days said “tutor.” Beca bites her lip not really knowing what to mark. She never planned her days. She remembered Chloe always liked to be organized when they were growing up. She had a dry-erase board in her room where she wrote down a to-do list almost every day.

“Um,” Beca says and then checks off today’s date. She reaches for her phone to pull out her work schedule and works from that. She marks a few days down being very mindful she didn’t mark down days that Chloe was too busy even though she said she’d work around Beca’s schedule. She hands the planner back to Chloe and Chloe looks it over.

“Okay, practice ends at five today, we can meet after. Do you want to meet at the library?”Chloe asks as she jots something down. Beca sees that she’s writing down “Beca” on the days she’s marked.

“The library closes at six, we won’t have time,” Beca points out. “Just come over my house after.”

Chloe looks up at that with surprise in her eyes. And to be honest, Beca surprised herself too. “Okay, I’ll be there around 5:30 then. Would like me to text you before I come?”

“No just come over,” Beca says quickly.

Chloe nods and continues to finish writing Beca’s name down the on the remaining days. “What time would you like to meet tomorrow?” She taps on tomorrow’s date where Beca marked a red check down.

Beca scratches the back of her neck suddenly getting uncomfortable. This was the most she’s interacted with Chloe in a very long time and it was now just hitting her she’s going to have to spend so much time with her for this project.

“I don’t know,” she says annoyed. “Why do we have to plan everything right now?”

“I figured you’d want this over and done with as soon as possible.”

Beca rolls her eyes. “Can we just meet tonight and discuss shit then? There’s like a minute left of class anyways.”

“Fine,” Chloe says and closes her planner. “Whatever you want,” is said under her breath but Beca catches it. Chloe puts her stuff in her bag just as the bell rings. She doesn’t even look at Beca when she gets up and leaves.

\---

Beca nearly burns a hole in her floor with the amount of pacing she was doing. She has checked her watch at least twenty times the past hour as 5:30 starts to approach.

“Are you okay, honey?” Her mom asks with concern.

“I’m fine,” Beca says and checks her watch again. It was 5:20.

“Okay, well, there’s a bunch of leftovers for dinner or you can order something. Not quite sure how long the showing will last tonight.” Donna checks herself in the mirror in the guest bathroom. Beca’s mom owns her own art studio downtown where she showcases her original artwork as well as other local artists. Her artwork hangs in various places around the city.

“Okay,” Beca says distractedly.

“And if you order, can you please order something with green in it?” Her mom says as puts on her heels. She looks at Beca who was staring distractedly at her phone. “Beca? What’s going on with you?”

Beca looks up from her phone to see her mom giving her a questioning look. “Nothing, have fun tonight, hoping you get a lot of new buyers.”

Donna smiles and gives her daughter a hug. Beca relaxes under her mother’s touch but jumps when the doorbell rings. Donna furrows her eyebrows. “Are you expecting someone?” She asks as she makes her way to the front door and opens it. “Oh my god, Chloe!” Her mom exclaims when she sees Chloe. Beca winces when her mom pulls Chloe into a hug. Chloe stumbles a little but Beca sees her smile as she returns the hug.

“Hi, Mrs. Mitchell,” Chloe says when they pull apart and Chloe takes in her outfit. “You look nice!” She says genuinely and Beca can’t see her mom’s face but she knows she’s beaming.

“Beca didn’t tell me you were coming over,” Donna says. Beca winces again. She never told her mom the exact reason why Chloe stopped coming over or the fact they’ve stopped interacting in general. She tried asking once and Beca just dissolved into tears. Donna never brought the subject up again.

“We have a project we’re working for class,” Chloe offers simply.

“Please feel free to stay for dinner,” her mom says. “I’m running a little late for an event but it’s really good seeing you again, honey.” She squeezes Chloe’s arm before stepping around Chloe and exiting the house. “Beca, call if you need anything.”

“Okay,” Beca says a little stiffly.

“Bye, Mrs. Mitchell,” Chloe says and then closes the door after her.

They stare at each other for a moment in the foyer before Beca says anything. “It’s Westgate.” Chloe looks at her confused. “It’s Ms. Westgate not Mrs. Mitchell,” Beca clarifies. Realization dawns on Chloe’s face when she looks briefly around the house. Any picture that had Warren in it were no longer on display.

“I’m sorry,” Chloe says. “When-“

“Freshmen year,” Beca says quickly. “Let’s get this over with.” She doesn’t wait for Chloe as she makes her way to the other room.

Beca has her stuff situated on the head of the dining room table they hardly ever used. Chloe sits herself down a seat over keeping a good distance between them. She takes out her notebook and laptop and turns it on.

“What’s your wifi password?” Chloe asks.

“I’m not telling you my password.”

Chloe rolls her eyes. “How the hell am I supposed to work with no internet? What do you think I’m going to do? Sit on your lawn and siphon your bandwidth?”

Beca’s a little taken aback by Chloe’s very sarcastic reply. It was something she would say. “Here, give me your laptop.”

“Seriously?” She says annoyed but pushes it towards Beca anyways.

Beca clicks on the wireless icon on Chloe’s computer and notices her background is a picture of her dog, Peter. She feels a pang in her chest. She really missed that dog. “Here,” Beca says when she finished typing in the password.

“Thank you.”

Beca sighs and they start to work. It’s barely been five minutes and they were already butting heads. It was going to be a long night.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update. Ish. This chapter went into a direction I didn't intend it to go but I hope it still flows well. Thanks y'all SO much for the amazing comments.

Beca and Chloe work in a very uncomfortable silence for about a half an hour. The only sounds that were heard were the clacking of their laptop keyboards and the occasional comment about their topic. Their exchanges were very monosyllabic and stilted. Beca tries not to look at Chloe as they work but it was hard when she was in direct sight of her. She notices that Chloe looked very tired that evening and guilt runs through her because Chloe came straight to her house right after cheerleading practice. Beca knew there was no way she had time to even stop by her own house to rest or freshen up.

Chloe was in her Barden High sweats and her ponytail was almost completely undone. There were dark circles under eyes and she couldn’t stop yawning.

“Um,” Beca says and clears her throat when Chloe looks up at her curiously. “Are you hungry?”

Chloe shrugs. “A little I guess, I can use a snack.” And on cue, Beca hears Chloe’s stomach rumble and she has to stop the smile from escaping on her face. Chloe blushes and looks down. “Okay, maybe a lot hungry.”

Beca reaches for her phone. “I can order pizza if you want. Or we have like two day old leftovers.”

Chloe smiles a little. “Pizza sounds good.”

Beca scrolls through her contacts and pulls up her normal pizza place and hits dial. It rings twice before someone picks up and she puts in her order. “Can I have a medium pizza with a garlic herb crust, bacon, and green peppers? And then have one half with mushrooms?” She doesn’t miss the look Chloe gives her when she completes the order. “Okay, thanks.” She hangs up the phone and places it back on the table. “Should be here in 20 minutes.”

Chloe nods. “Can I use your bathroom?”

“Yeah, sure.” Beca watches as Chloe grabs something from her backpack and makes her way to the guest bathroom. She takes that moment to let out a long breath and reaches for her phone again. There was a notification from Jesse.

**Jesse:  
** _everything going good?_

**Beca:  
** _No. this is so fucking awkward. we’ve barely said one word to each other._

**Jesse:  
** 😬😬 _lemme me kno if you need me to like come over or fake an emergency or something._

**Beca:  
** _thanks but I think I’ll be fine the rest of the night. But thanks for the offer._

**Jesse:  
** _anytime becaw._

Beca locks her phone when she hears Chloe coming back. Her stomach does a familiar flip when Chloe sits back down and Beca takes in her appearance. She brushed her hair out and retied it back into a neater ponytail and her face is now donning a pair of simple black framed glasses. She puts what looks like a glasses case and a small bottle of contact lens solution back into her bag.

“What?” Chloe asks a little nervously when she notices Beca is staring.

Beca quickly looks away and tries to focus on her laptop screen. “Nothing,” she says quickly and clears her throat again. She sees in her peripheral that Chloe is still looking at her so she glances back up. “When did you get glasses?” She finally asks.

“Oh,” Chloe says and subconsciously straightens her glasses. “I failed the vision part of my driver’s test last year. Couldn’t pass until I took an actual vision exam and got these.”

Beca nods and continues to stare. “You don’t wear them at school.”

“Contacts are easier with cheerleading,” Chloe explains.

“Right,” Beca says and returns her focus back to her computer. She’s been on the same page for the past ten minutes. They return back to an uncomfortable silence but Beca soon is distracted by the vibrations of Chloe’s phone.

It goes off a few times and Beca can see text notifications keep popping up. Chloe only glances but doesn’t make any move to check her phone. After a few more vibrations, Beca starts to get annoyed.

“Are you going to answer any of that?”

“No,” Chloe says and doesn’t even bother looking up from her own computer. Her phone goes off again but this time it rings and the continuous vibration shakes the table. Chloe sighs and silences it.

Beca glares at the phone. “It seems like someone really wants your attention,” she says a little bitterly.

Chloe sighs again when her phone goes off with another incoming call. This time she picks it up and slides the screen to answer it. “What?” She says in lieu of a greeting and Beca’s a little shocked with how angry she sounds. It’s impossible not to eavesdrop at this point since Chloe makes no effort in leaving the room. “I told you I was busy tonight,” Chloe says to the person on the other end. Beca pretends to at least look like she’s working. She can’t hear who’s on the other end but the muffled voice sounded like a guy. “I’m doing homework…yes, on a Friday night…there’s about twenty other people you can hang out with tonight…I’m not your girlfriend.” Chloe chooses that moment to remember where she was and takes a deep breath to calm herself. “Look, I gotta go, bye.” She doesn’t wait for the other person to say anything and ends the call. She puts her phone face down and continues to work not even bothering to look up at Beca.

Beca tries very hard not to type aggressively on her keyboard. “If there’s some place you need to be, why did you agree to meet tonight?”

“Do you have selective hearing?” Chloe retorts and glares at Beca. “Where in that conversation did you hear that I had some place to be?”

Beca scoffs. “I mean, I know you cheerleaders always need to be at a party on a Friday night. Why are you slumming it with a peasant tonight?” It’s juvenile and frankly didn’t make a lick of sense but Beca rationality seemed to disappear that moment.

“Really, Beca?” Chloe sounded so tired. “Are we going to do this again? Are you going to be angry at me forever for being a cheerleader?”

Beca snaps her mouth shut and goes back to typing randomly onto her laptop. She didn’t want to have this conversation and really hates herself for giving Chloe that opening. “Let’s just get back to work.”

“Oh, okay, so you’re just going to shut me out again?” Chloe continues. “Do you have any idea how shitty these last three years have been, Beca?”

Beca eyes snap to hers angrily. “Do I know how shitty these last three years have been?” She repeats incredulously. “Seriously, dude?”

Chloe glares at her not backing down. She sit ups and leans towards Beca. “You didn’t give me a chance to react, Beca. You literally ran away from me and had no desire to listen to anything I had to say.” Beca opens her mouth to interrupt but Chloe continues on. “I was shocked okay? My best friend confessed something to me and I didn’t know what to say so I panicked. And it wasn’t because I didn’t want to be around you.”

Beca feels the blood rush to her ears as she flashes back to that day. “You said us spending time apart would be better,” she counters. “You didn’t want to be around me.”

Chloe looks at her sadly. “I wish I didn’t say that. I regretted it the second it left my mouth but you just _left_. You didn’t give me a chance to apologize and when I came back, you ignored me. Wrote me off in your head that I’d rather spend time with the popular crowd than with you.”

Beca looks down, unable to watch the tears starting to form in Chloe’s eyes.

“I know what I said wasn’t the reaction you wanted to hear when you told me what you told me. I can’t even imagine what that felt like. But Beca,” Chloe sighs again and wipes at her eyes. “Do you have _any idea_ what it feels like to know your best friend thought so little of you?”

Beca looks at her in shock. “What?”

Chloe shakes her head and starts gathering her things. “You know what? I’m tired, we should just continue this tomorrow. Can you meet me at my house at two?” She starts to pack up her laptop into bag when Beca reaches out to grab her wrist giving Beca a very vivid déjà vu.

“Chloe, wait, can we just,” Beca doesn’t know what to say but she doesn’t want Chloe to leave. “I’m sorry.” Chloe looks at her surprised. “Can you just stay for dinner? I can’t eat a pizza by myself and I hate mushrooms.” Beca’s heart flutters at Chloe’s little laugh.

“I’ll stay for dinner but what about us?”

Beca swallows and releases Chloe’s wrist. “Let’s get through this project first and then we can talk? I’m still.” She pauses. Angry, Beca wants to say but also sad and missing Chloe more every day. “I promise we’ll talk.”

“Okay,” Chloe concedes and sits back down just as the doorbell rings.

“That’d be the pizza,” Beca says unnecessarily and gets up to go answer the door. Her mind is running a mile a minute. She had no intention of bringing any of that stuff back up but now it’s out in the open again, Beca feels like she’s about to puke. It was so easier to be angry at Chloe and pretending Chloe was the bad guy who thought she was a freak for confessing her feelings. It was easier to think she was just like all the cheerleaders but now Beca was faced with the fact that Chloe is still _her_ Chloe. Her words echo in Beca’s head: “Do you have any idea what it feels like to know your best friend thought so little of you?”

Beca hates herself to ever think that her Chloe would ever break her heart intentionally.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this chapter is so short. I've been experiencing a lot of wrist pain (pretty sure I have carpal tunnel) so it physically hurts to write/type. It's a bit better now but I've been antsy to write the next chapter. Hoping you guys enjoy! Thanks so much for reading!
> 
> Also check out the [GIFSET](https://sensiblethingtodo.tumblr.com/post/190441872836/based-on-my-fic-no-way-to-make-the-pain-play-fair) I made to accompany my fic.

Beca suggests they watch TV while they eat since both weren’t in the right mind frame to continue to work. They sit on opposite ends of the couch with the pizza box as their only buffer set on the coffee table. Beca turns on the HGTV channel and they watch a marathon of some fixer up show. Or at least pretend to watch. Beca can’t really pay attention to anything except for Chloe sitting a few feet from her. She has no idea who’s going to start the conversation again once they don’t have the excuse of eating anymore. Chloe devours her half of the pizza in record time and Beca laughs when she looks at the almost empty pizza box.

“So you were really hungry?” Beca says pointing at the box.

Chloe smiles and wipes her hands and mouth with a napkin. “I didn’t get to eat lunch today.”

Beca frowns at that. “Yeah, I didn’t see you in the cafeteria.”

Chloe raises her eyebrow and smiles a little. “You look for me?”

Beca blushes at her accidental admission. She clears her throat. “I look for you all the time,” she says quietly and looks down at her hands and starts balling up the napkin she was holding.

“Then why do you always snap at me when I try to talk to you?” Chloe asks.

“Because,” Beca says strained and rips apart the napkin. “You’re always with _them_ half of the time.”

Chloe lets out an exasperated sigh. “Beca, I’m not Alice, how can you ever think I would be like her? Or any of her friends?”

“Well you don’t exactly stop her when she’s being a bitch, do you?” Beca snaps. Chloe looks away guiltily. “You just stand there. And it’s not only when she’s being a bitch to me, it’s when she’s being heinous in general. Did you hear what she said to Flo about her family?” Beca doesn’t even bother repeating it because of how it awful it was.

“I’m sorry,” Chloe says looking back. “I know that doesn’t excuse it. You’re right, I don’t say anything Beca. Call it cowardice but I can’t risk being kicked off the team.”

Beca can’t help but roll her eyes. “Cheerleading isn’t everything, Chloe.”

“It is when your grades aren’t cutting it,” Chloe bites out. “I told you this is my only way I can qualify for scholarships. College isn’t cheap, Beca. We don’t all have a rich-” She stops herself from completing her sentence but Beca knew what she going to say. “I’m sorry,” Chloe quickly apologizes. “That was harsh.”

“No,” Beca says quietly. “I’m sorry. You’re right, I sometimes forget that I’m actually very lucky when it comes to that shit.”

Chloe nods and they fall back into an awkward silence with only the TV as background noise.

“I’m sorry about your grandma,” Chloe says after a few moments and Beca looks at her curiously. “My mom told me,” she clarifies. “She sees your mom from time to time.”

Beca looks down at her hands again. “Thank you.”

“I wish I could’ve been there. I know how close you were to her.”

Beca feels the couch shift a little and she looks up and sees that Chloe had scooted closer to her. She freezes. Everything in her tells her to flee as Chloe gets in within almost arms reach.

“I miss you,” Chloe says so quietly that Beca barely hears her. “So much, Beca.” Her voices cracks at Beca’s name and Beca can feel her throat constrict and the threat of tears beginning to form in her eyes. Beca chances and looks up to meet Chloe’s own tear filled eyes. “Do you miss me?”

Beca tries not to break their gaze as she squeezes her hands into a fist, her nails digging into her palms. “It’s hard to breathe sometimes,” Beca admits in a tense whisper. She watches as the tears fall down Chloe’s face and she makes no attempt to wipe them away.

“Do you think,” Chloe starts and moves a little closer to Beca. “We can ever be friends again?”

“Chloe,” Beca says and looks away. “I,” she stops and closes her eyes. _I love you and I can’t just be friends._ The words are in Beca’s head but she doesn’t say them out loud. Instead she takes a deep breath trying to calm her rapidly beating heart.

“I’m sorry,” Chloe says again and Beca think it’s all she’s been doing all night: apologizing. She feels Chloe get up and off the couch. “It’s getting late and I’m tired. I should get home.” She walks back into the dining room and starts gathering her stuff as quickly as possible. Beca wants to scream in frustration as she follows her.

“Chloe,” Beca says again as she watches her zip up her bag and walk to the door. She doesn’t know what to say but follows Chloe helplessly to her front door.

“Do you think you can come over tomorrow so we can work more on the project?” Chloe asks trying to steer the conversation back to something mundane but doesn’t look at Beca. Remnants of tears are still evident on her face.

Beca sighs. “Yeah, I’ll be there at two.”

“Okay. Goodnight, Beca.” Chloe opens the door and leaves.

Beca watches her pull out of her driveway before closing the door. “Goodnight, Chloe.”

\---

Beca wakes up to her mom brushing her hair out of her face a few hours later. It takes her a few moments to realize she had fallen asleep on the couch after Chloe left, emotionally exhausted.

“What time is it?” Beca asks and looks for her phone.

“Just a little after eleven,” her mom tells her softly. “Do you want to sleep down here or go up to bed?”

Beca wipes at her face and sits up. “Yeah, I’ll go to bed, how was your night?” She gets up and stretches and hears her back crack.

“It was good. Got a few people interested in some of my new pieces.” Donna reaches over and tucks a wayward strand of hair behind Beca’s ear. “Honey, are you okay?”

Beca shrugs and avoids her mom’s eyes. “I guess.”

Donna pulls Beca to her and squeezes her tight. “I know you don’t want to talk about what happened between you and Chloe but remember that I’m always here okay?”

Beca nods against her mom’s shoulder and squeezes her tighter. She wanted to cry again but god she was tired of being sad and angry. “I know.”

“Go to bed, honey. You seem like you could use a good night’s sleep.” She pulls back and kisses Beca on her forehead. “Goodnight.”

“Night, mom.”

Beca makes her way to her room and starts to change into her sleepwear. She had every intention to just go straight to sleep but Beca looks around her room and sighs before bending down to look under her bed. She frowns when she realizes that everything is covered in a thin layer of dust but reaches to pull out a shoebox. She blows some of the dust off its lid before setting in on her comforter. She hadn’t looked at contents of that box in almost three years and Beca braces herself before lifting the lid.

A stack of old printed photos, various written notes, cheap jewelry, and a small mason jar filled with coins and dollar bills were among of the things in it. Everything in the box was related to Beca and Chloe’s friendship.

Beca gingerly takes out an old photobooth strip of her and Chloe that was taken at the bowling alley they used to frequent. She runs her finger down each photo and feels that familiar pang in her heart. Every picture had them both smiling and laughing. Happy. Beca takes the strip and goes to her vanity mirror and sticks it between the frame and glass, returning it to its original location.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading! My wrist is feeling a little better. It comes and goes and keeping it in a brace helps. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Beca doesn’t mean to wake up early (especially on a Saturday) but she’s suddenly up at 8am and can’t fall back asleep. She knows it’s her subconscious hyping her up for when she has to meet Chloe later in the day. She hasn’t been back to the Beale’s house since she stormed out of it three years ago. She doesn’t know what to anticipate. Beca could just pretend that none of yesterday happened and just focus on their project but she knows Chloe would never let her forget their conversation. The truth is she wants to be friends with Chloe again but she also _wants_ Chloe. Her feelings never died and if anything, they just grew. She can’t exactly tell Chloe that the only reason she doesn’t want to be friends with her is because she wants to be more. It made Beca feel like she was diminishing their friendship when it was one of most important things to her. It wasn’t Chloe’s fault she didn’t feel the same way.

Beca busies herself by cleaning her room to take her mind off meeting Chloe and to kill time. She was supposed to meet her dad for their scheduled time together but that was the last thing she needed. Beca was a little worried her dad would take this ongoing issue with the courts and get her mom inadvertently in trouble. She only had to wait until November when she turned eighteen and then Beca was an adult and had no more obligations to be with her dad.

Beca was in the middle of dusting under her bed when her mom came in and startled her.

“Are you cleaning on a Saturday morning?”

Beca jumps and hits her head on the bed frame. “Ow, fuck!” Beca exclaims and looks immediately contrite at her mom’s raised eyebrow. “Sorry,” she mumbles and throws away a dirt filled swiffer. “Yeah, I think a civilization was starting to form under there.” Donna laughs and moves the various objects Beca had pulled out to clean. Her eyes immediately go the open shoebox of Chloe related things

“You putting some of these back out?” She asks and takes out the money filled mason jar.

Beca takes it from her and puts it on her dresser. “Yeah, just some stuff.”

Donna nods and watches her daughter closely. “Your dad called again.”

Beca sighs and returns to cleaning. “I know it’s his day but I have plans.”

“Beca, you know he is legally allowed and has every right to see you?”

“I know but I don’t want to,” Beca stubbornly says. She’s aware of how petulant she sounds but a part of her doesn’t care.

“Honey,” Donna says patiently and reaches out to squeeze Beca’s arm.

“Mom, look, I’ll call him okay?” Beca says. “I just need to get through today.” She starts putting her now clean things back under bed. “I’ll let him take me out for coffee or something but I am not going to his house.”

“That fair,” her mom says. “Would you like some breakfast since you’re actually up before noon?” She teases and it draws a smile from Beca.

“Are you going to make me pancakes?”

“Are you going to go to the store and get ingredients?” She takes out her car keys from her back pocket like she was anticipating Beca’s question and holds them out to Beca.

Beca rolls her eyes playfully. “You suck, I’ll be right back.”

\---

Beca and her mom spend most of the morning cleaning and doing various tasks they’ve been putting off all week. It’s only when her mom says she’s going to start working on a painting for one of her commissions that Beca noticed that it was nearing 2pm and she had to start getting ready soon. Chloe only lived six blocks away and she could technically walk or bike there but Beca didn’t want to be carrying her backpack and laptop with her the entire time.

Beca makes a little more effort in brushing out her hair so it doesn’t seem so messy and applies her make up a little more precisely. It’s only when Beca goes back and forth between wearing a black hoodie and a green hoodie she realizes she was being a bit ridiculous. She ends up throwing her hair up in a bun and heads out the door.

One of the few things her parents could agree on was that Beca wasn’t allowed her own car until her grades went up. She was currently getting mostly A’s and B’s but her chemistry grade was borderline on the fail side. At first, Beca was a little annoyed that she had to constantly ask her mom if she could borrow her car but realized that she barely even goes out and when she did, it was always with Jesse and he drove her everywhere.

But now she was driving to Chloe’s house and Beca actually drives around the street a few times to gather her thoughts. After the fifth time around Chloe’s block, she finally pulls up on the side of the street. She looks up at Chloe’s house for a few moments before finally exiting the car and walks up to the front door. Chloe’s house was one on the side of the neighborhood where the older and smaller houses were opposed to Beca’s house which was an addition to the neighborhood and much more updated and bigger. And more expensive.

It was one of things that was constantly present in Beca and Chloe’s friendship: their financial background. It wasn’t that Chloe’s family was poor but Beca never had to worry about whether her parents could pay the bill on time. It was something they hardly ever talked about but it definitely came up a lot more when Chloe started talking about cheerleading and scholarships.

Beca takes a deep breath and rings the doorbell and she immediately hears a dog barking. She can hear footsteps behind the door and a muffled “Shh, stop barking!” before Chloe opens the door. Beca has to calm her heart when sees Chloe is wearing her glasses again along with an oversized tshirt and shorts.

“Hi,” Chloe says smiling and opens the door wider. “Come on in.”

Beca gives a small smile back and steps over the threshold. She sees a brown pitbull sitting in the foyer wagging its tailing excitedly. She frowns and looks at Chloe. “Where’s Peter?”

Chloe locks her front door and looks at her sadly. “We had to put him down last summer, he started getting really sick in his old age.”

Beca feels her heart sink to her stomach. “I’m sorry,” she says immediately. “I didn’t know.”

Chloe smiles sadly. “It’s okay, he lived a really good and long life. This,” she says and calls over the pitbull and she trots over right to Beca and looks up at her. “Is Noodle, we adopted her at the beginning of the year. Say hi to Beca.”

Noodles barks and Beca smiles down at her and pets her. “Hi, Noodle,” Beca says and her dog baby voice slips through a little. She blushes when she sees Chloe smiling at her. “Um, we should get to work?”

“Is that little Beca?”

Beca turns and smiles when sees Chloe’s dad coming out of the family room. She frowns again when she sees his arm is casted and in a sling. “Hi, Mr. Beale!” She happily accepts the one armed hug Stephen Beale gives her. “I’d hate to see how the other guy looks like,” Beca jokes and points to his arm when they pull apart.

Stephen laughs but Beca can see it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m gonna leave you girls to it,” he says and turns to Chloe. “Honey, mom picked up an extra shift tonight so it’s just you and me for dinner.” Chloe just nods and Stephen turns his attention back to Beca. “Don’t be a stranger, kiddo, no one appreciate my dad jokes as much as you.”

Beca laughs and waves awkwardly when Stephen goes back to the family room with Noodle following him. She stands there for a few moments until she hears Chloe clear her throat.

“Wanna head to my room and start working?”

“Right, work.”

Beca follows Chloe up the stairs and into her room. She’s overwhelmed with feelings when she looks around. Chloe’s room hasn’t changed much since last saw it. She did take down all the band posters and replaced them with photography art. It seemed a little more mature like it aged along with Chloe. Beca doesn’t miss that Chloe kept their pictures up on her mirror and dresser. The identical mason jar filled with money sits in the corner of her desk.

“I cleared my desk so you can work there,” Chloe says snapping Beca out of her reverie. “The wifi password is written down on the post it note.”

“Oh, thanks,” Beca says almost robotically and goes to set up her laptop on Chloe’s desk. She watches briefly as Chloe situates herself on her bed and takes out her own laptop. She has her pillows propped up in a way so she can work comfortably. Beca looks down at the post it note containing the password and almost cries.

**P3ter!0614**

Just like at Beca’s house the previous night, they work in an uncomfortable silence with very few exchanges. Beca’s back is mostly towards Chloe but she can feel Chloe watching her from time to time. After and hour of nonstop work, Beca finally speaks up.

“What happened to your dad’s arm?” Beca saves her progress on her computer and turns to look at Chloe.

Chloe rubs at her eyes and stretches a little. Beca can’t help but look at the sliver of skin that peaks out when Chloe’s shirt rises a little. “He got hurt at work. He’s going to be out on medical leave for a bit which is why mom keeps picking up extra shifts at the restaurant,” Chloe explains.

“Wait, shouldn’t he get workman’s compensation if he was hurt on the job?” Chloe’s dad was a construction worker who worked on several houses and office building sites.

“He was technically off the clock when it happened so they say he doesn’t qualify for it. We’re trying to fight it but that requires lawyers and lawyers require money,” Chloe trails off and stops talking realizing she may have said a little too much. “We should get back to work.” She looks back down on her computer and avoids Beca’s eyes.

Beca turns back around and tries to go back to work but she really didn’t want to. She stares at her screen for a few moments before her eyes start looking around Chloe’s room again to see what else has changed in the past three years. Chloe definitely had more friends now if her pictures on her wall were any indication. They were mostly with Aubrey and some other girls she’s seen around school. She was happy to see that Alice was thankfully absent in them. The only time she appeared was a team picture of the cheerleading squad. Her eyes do a double take when she sees a picture of Chloe with some guy she can’t quite place. She’s seen him around the cheerleaders and Beca thinks he may be a football player or basketball player. Beca tries to tear her eyes away from that photo and continues to look around the room.

Her eyebrows furrow when she sees a stack of plastic bags on top of Chloe’s bookshelf. Before she can even think about it, Beca gets up to look and sees it’s every record Chloe bought from the music store still in their plastic bags. Beca eyes do another quick search around the room looking for something.

“You don’t have a record player,” Beca says and it startles Chloe making her look up. Chloe looks like she just realized that Beca had been roaming her room instead of working.

“Huh?” Chloe asks confused.

“You don’t have a record player,” Beca repeats. “But you bought all of these.” She lifts the stack of records to emphasize her point.

Chloe blushes. “Right, I needed an excuse to be in the store so I can see you. The used record section had cheap records.”

Beca feels the heat rush to her face at Chloe’s confession. “How did you know what days I’ll be in? And did you really buy random records?”

Chloe laughs. “Well yeah, I mean, I’d feel a little weird constantly going into a store and never buying anything. And I called Luke every time to check if you were working.”

“How very stalkerish of you,” Beca jokes. “I knew you weren’t a Springsteen fan.”

“I bought a Springsteen record?” Chloe asks incredulously and rushes over to look.

Beca laughs and shows her the record. “You didn’t even look?”

“I just looked at the price and not the actual artist. Geez, what else did I buy?” She takes the records from Beca and starts taking them out of their bags. Beca has to take a deep breath when she realizes how close Chloe just got to her that she could smell her shampoo. “Oh look at that, I bought ‘Baby One More Time’ on vinyl,” Chloe says and holds up another record. “I should get a record player so I can play all these. We could probably bust out the choreography to this right now.”

Beca’s mind flashes back to when Chloe made her memorize all the dance moves from the Britney Spears’ music video so they can perform it for the talent show. It was the hardest she ever laughed and they got in trouble for dancing too ‘provocatively.’

“I don’t remember any of the moves,” Beca says and she can’t help but be a little transfixed at the way Chloe is smiling at her.

“I can teach it to you again.” She puts the records back on the shelf and continues to stare at Beca. She also seemed to be moving closer to her as well. Beca is not quite sure what to make of Chloe’s actions but she feels like the room got about ten times warmer.

“We should get back to work,” Beca says when Chloe moves into her personal space. She hears Chloe sigh when she sits back down at the desk.

“I’m sorry,” Chloe says for what feels like the millionth time.

Beca opens her mouth to tell her to stop apologizing but Chloe’s phone vibrates with an incoming call. Chloe goes to answer it when she looks at the screen.

“Hey Aubrey….what?!”

Beca turns around and watches as Chloe gets more distressed listening to Aubrey.

“What mandatory practice? No, I ignore all of Alice’s dumb group text messages. What the hell? I can’t, I’m legit in the middle of something right now.” Beca sighs and starts packing up her things when she hears that. “Are you serious? Fine, I’ll be there in twenty.” Chloe hangs up and tosses her phone on the bed. “Beca, wait,” she says when she sees Beca is already is on her way out.

“I’ll see you at school, Chloe.” She doesn’t even bother to look at her and heads for the door, history repeating itself.

“Beca, stop!” Chloe says more firmly and Beca does. “ _Stop_ doing that.”

Beca turns around and glares at her. “Doing what? Your master called and you come running every time.”

Chloe lets out a humorless laugh. “You can’t ask me to choose between cheerleading and you, Beca.”

Beca widens her eyes in shock. That was not what she was expecting. “I’m not,” she denies.

“Yes, yes you are,” Chloe insists. “I need this Beca, you saw down there,” she indicates downstairs where her dad was currently watching TV. “My mom and dad don’t have money to send me to school and no school is going to give a scholarship to a B- student. I need cheerleading, Beca and you keep making me choose.”

Beca opens her mouth but no words come out.

“I haven’t changed despite what you think,” Chloe continues. “I’m still me but with poms poms. I wish you could see past this whole cheerleading thing and see that I’m still your best friend. I’m not choosing them over you but I need them. And I need you too.” Chloe looks at her with pleading eyes. “Please, stop being angry with me.”

Beca bites her lip and tries to digest what Chloe just told her. “Um, how long is this mandatory practice?”

Chloe squints at her curiously. “A couple of hours.”

Beca nods. “You wanna get coffee after?”

Chloe smiles. “Yeah, I’d love to.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for reading so far! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. :)

“Hey, mom,” Beca greets when she goes downstairs in the basement that doubled as her mom’s work studio.

“You’re back early,” Donna says glancing at her watch. “You’ve only been gone an hour.” She puts her paint palette down and gives her daughter her full attention.

Beca takes a seat on one of the stools that were scattered throughout the space. “Chloe got called away to some dumb mandatory cheer practice,” she says with a scowl. “Nice painting.” She nods at the current piece her mom was working on.

Donna smiles and wipes at her brow with her sleeve. The old shirt she was using as a smock is paint stained and her hair was tied back in a bandana. “You’re not a very good critic though. You’re extremely biased,” she jokes.

Beca smiles and crosses her legs, putting her elbow on her knee and leans her chin against her hand. “I mean, god it’s awful. You call that art? A cat could’ve painted that!”

“That’s more like it.” Her mom laughs back and tosses her a dirty rag. Beca bats it away just in time. “What’s on your mind, honey?” Donna asks once their laughter subsides.

Beca shrugs. “Nothing,” she says unconvincingly.

“Tell that to your face,” Donna counters. “You know I’m always here to listen right? For whatever reason.” She pauses like she’s contemplating her next words. “Even if it’s the reason is a certain red headed cheerleader who used to come over almost every day and then suddenly has been absent the past three years.”

Beca looks up at her and sighs. She picks at the loose thread of the part of her jeans that was frayed before answering her mom. She knows she’s waiting patiently. “I like Chloe,” Beca says in the quietest of voices. When she doesn’t hear her mom say anything, Beca looks up to find her mom looking at her the way she always she does: with the utmost love and understanding. “And I take it by your silence, you already knew that,” Beca says with a little self deprecating laugh.

Donna approaches her and brushes her hair out of her face and cups her cheek. “I had my suspicions but I wasn’t going to assume anything. I was waiting for you.”

Beca nods and then shrugs again. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, I’m not exactly the greatest person to ask for advice in regards to relationships,” her mom says joking and Beca playfully roll her eyes. “But I think communication is a key. Or so I’ve heard.”

“Because I’m such a great talker,” Beca says sarcastically. “I told her to meet me for coffee after her practice.”

Donna smiles encouragingly. “Well, that’s a start. Look at you taking initiative!”

“Mom, please,” Beca deadpans and her mom laughs. “Go back to your ugly painting.” Beca gets up and dodges her mom’s attempt to swat at her butt.

Beca heads back upstairs and contemplates if she wants to eat a snack before coffee or just wait for dinner all together when her phone vibrates with a text.

 **Jesse:  
** _benji had to cancel because he got grounded last minute. apparently one of his magic tricks almost set his room on fire. can you PLEASE come to the movies with me so i dont look like a loser by myself??_ 😩

Beca rolls her eyes and types out a reply.

 **Beca:  
** _you ARE a loser._

 **Jesse:  
** _RUDE. please becaw?? I’ll buy all the popcorn and candy!_

 **Beca:  
** _Fine. Im meeting Chloe around 5 for coffee. what time does the movie start?_

 **Jesse:  
** _?? really? you guys have a coffee date?? what happened last night and today? fill me in woman!_

 **Beca:  
** _not a date and I’ll tell you later. what time does the movie start nerd?_

 **Jesse:  
** _6:45 but I wanna get there early so we can get prime seats and get all the food beforehand. so like you have plenty of time with chloe_.😁

 **Beca:  
** _Alright, I’ll meet you at the theater around 6:30 then. bye loser_

 **Jesse:**  
😎

Beca closes out of her messages and looks at the time. It seems like the only thing she’s been doing is counting down to when she’ll see Chloe again. It’s only been two days since they started working on their project and they already had a good chunk of it done. She figures that all their awkward silences were good for school work. It wasn’t good for their damaged relationship even though they spoken more these past two days than they have in years. Beca doesn’t want another awkward filled silence at coffee so she wracks her brain of what she can say to Chloe. She remembers when she could tell Chloe everything and nothing and now she struggles not to close up whenever Chloe gets too close. But her mom was right: communication was the key. If Beca wanted to have Chloe back in her life, she needed to talk to her and not push her away. And she needed to stop blaming Chloe for the demise of their relationship.

\---

Beca arrives at the coffee shop a little early and orders hers and Chloe’s coffee and finds an empty table in the corner of the shop. It occurs to Beca that they didn’t actually designate which coffee shop to meet at but they fall back to their old habits when Beca sees Chloe enter and her eyes immediately find where she was.

“Hi,” Chloe says and takes a seat across Beca. She looks exhausted and Beca doesn’t miss the grimace on Chloe’s face when she sits down. “I just realized that we didn’t actually say where to meet but I’m glad we thought the same place,” Chloe says laughing and tries to get comfortable on the chair.

Beca smiles and pushes the cup of coffee she bought for Chloe. “I got you a white chocolate mocha.”

Chloe’s face lights up when she takes the cup and brings it to her lips. “Thanks, did you get a caramel one?”

Beca lifts her own cup and takes a sip. “Yup, I’m not one for change.” She blushes at the loaded statement and Chloe’s eyes don’t leave hers. She swallows her coffee and bites her lip. “How was practice?”

Chloe blows out a puff of air and it moves a few strands of hair out of her face. “Exhausting, Alice is insane since the competition is a week away. I’m so sore.” She emphasizes her point by stretching and rubbing some of her sore limbs.

Beca frowns. “Should you be drinking coffee right now? Doesn’t caffeine like, tighten up your muscles?”

Chloe smiles as she continues to rub at a knot on her neck. “One cup won’t do anything. I keep hydrated during and after practice.”

“Still,” Beca mumbles. “You shouldn’t overwork your body. I think Alice is a little psychotic having a mandatory practice on a Saturday.”

Chloe shrugs and takes another sip of her coffee. “I can handle Alice.”

“She’s like two personality traits away from being a serial killer.”

Chloe lets out a laugh. “I think you’re watching too many procedural shows.”

Beca shrugs. “I’m just saying if cheerleaders suddenly start to disappear and end up stuffed in like lockers or something, Alice will be the prime suspect.”

“That’s a very specific scenario,” Chloe says still laughing and Beca can’t help but smile back. In that moment, Beca feels like they’re friends again having coffee at one of their favorite places. They start a small discussion of all the crime drama shows Beca was currently watching that Chloe never got into. She always thought they were too gory for her own taste but she used to occasionally binge watch them with Beca since Beca never wanted to watch movies. Although Chloe did make them watch at least one Disney movie after hours of watching Criminal Minds.

For once they fall into a comfortable silence as both sip on their drinks.

“I wish I can take the last three years back,” Chloe says after a while. “But I know I can’t but if you let me, I’d really want to try to be your friend again, Beca.” Chloe bites her lip as she looks at Beca with hope.

Beca takes a deep breath. “I’d have to apologize to you first.” She can’t help but look down when Chloe tilts her head at her curiously. “I’m sorry that I painted you as some awful cheerleader who forgot about me and just wanted to be popular.”

“Beca, I understand why you did,” Chloe says leaning in trying to get Beca to look at her.

Beca shakes her head. “It still doesn’t make it right. It wasn’t your fault that you,” she stops not wanting to finish her thought. _It wasn’t your fault you didn’t feel the same way about me._ “I’m not saying that after two days of working together that our friendship can suddenly be repaired,” she says instead and finally looks up. Chloe looks at her intently, listening on every word she says. “And I know we can’t just go back to how we were but I am willing to try.”

“That’s all I’m asking,” Chloe says and gives her a small smile. Beca nods and starts picking at the sleeve of her coffee cup. “Do you want come back to my house and work on the project more? Dad’s cooking sloppy joe’s for dinner.”

“Thanks but I’m going to the movies with Jesse later.”

Chloe frowns at that and Beca swears she sees disappointment in her eyes. “Oh, you’re going to the movies? Voluntarily?” She says it with a laugh but Beca can tell that it was a little forced.

“Yeah, Benji cancelled on him and he doesn’t want to go by himself,” Beca says and furrows her eyebrows at the look on Chloe’s face. She can’t quite place what it means.

“So like a date?” It was Chloe’s turn to look away and start picking on her coffee sleeve.

Beca frowns. “No, not a date.”

“You know Jesse asked me what your favorite chocolate bar was in the sixth grade,” Chloe randomly says. “He wanted to give it to you for Valentine’s Day.”

Beca almost chokes on her own spit. “He did what now?” She asks incredulously and almost bursts out laughing.

Chloe doesn’t look amused. “Yeah, you know he had the biggest crush on you right?”

“I know,” Beca say immediately and it shocks Chloe a little. “He told me the beginning of freshmen year.”

“Oh,” Chloe says and rubs the back of her neck.

“And then he kissed me and said it felt like he was kissing his cousin. His crush stopped there.”

Chloe widens her eyes at that and then starts laughing. “Oh my god,” she says between giggles.

Beca narrows her eyes. “I’m so glad that this amuses you.” She leans back in her seat and crosses her arms across her chest waiting for Chloe to stop laughing.

“I’m sorry,” Chloe says wiping her eyes. “But that’s legit almost like what happened between me and Chicago.”

It was Beca’s turn to widen her eyes at that little fact. “Chicago Walp? The guy who followed you around like a puppy dog all through the seventh grade?”

Chloe laughs again and nods. “Yeah, his dad got reassigned sophomore year so he had to move schools again. I went to his going away party and he pulled me aside,” she recounts between giggles. Beca can feel the corners of her mouth twitch into a smile at how cute Chloe sounds laughing. “He wanted to say goodbye to me in private and then he just kissed me. But then he pulled away like my lips burned him and then mumbled something how I reminded him of his older sister and ran away.”

Beca couldn’t help the laugh that burst out of her as Chloe finishes her story. “He ran away? Oh my god.” They both dissolve into uncontrollable laughter that drew a lot of attention from the other patrons in the store. Beca can feel a stitch in her side with how hard she was laughing while also trying to keep quiet. After a few moments, their laughter finally subsides and they wipe away their tears. They stare at each other for a few moments just smiling.

“I have to get going,” Beca says when she glances at her watch. She wonders if cancelling on Jesse after Benji already cancelled on him would earn her some bad karma points. She really didn’t want to leave.

Chloe, still smiling, nods and gets up. She reaches over to take Beca’s empty coffee cup and disposes it along with hers. They exit the shop together and Chloe walks her to her car.

“I’ll see you Monday?” Chloe says with a hopeful smile.

Beca smiles back and gets into her car. “Yeah, I’ll see you, Monday.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone so much for reading! Hoping you guys like this chapter. Finally getting to the fluffy parts!

“So,” Jesse starts once they found their seats in the theater. He manages to hold a jumbo sized popcorn in one hand and their two drinks in the other without spilling. “How was your date?”

Beca rolls her eyes as she sits down. She vaguely wonders if Chloe and Jesse are the same person with how similar they were. “Not a date,” she says for the second time that day. She tears open her package of sour straws and takes two out and stuffs them in her mouth.

“Sure,” Jesse says sarcastically and hands Beca her drink. “So are you guys friends again?”

Beca takes her time chewing her candy before answering. The theater was pretty full so it’d be really obvious if she fell asleep. She wasn’t even sure what movie they were seeing. “I mean, not exactly, but we talked,” Beca says. “We’re going to take it slow.”

Jesse smiles. “Well that’s good, so you’re not gonna hiss at her when she approaches you at school?”

Beca glares at him. “I do not hiss.”

“Yeah, you do, it’s okay though. You’re like an angry kitten, ow!” He rubs at his arm where Beca just punched him.

“Shut up, the previews are starting.”

Jesse shakes his head but laughs. “I’m glad you’re okay, though,” he says sincerely.

Beca smiles and reaches over to grab a handful of popcorn. “You’re so corny.”

\---

For once when Beca’s alarm rings on Monday morning, she didn’t have the urge to throw her phone across the room. She does still hit the snooze button once.

“I didn’t have to drag you out of bed this morning,” Beca’s mom says when she sits down for breakfast.

“I had an early night,” Beca says smiling. She went to bed her usual time but she got a text from Chloe right before she fell asleep.

 **Chloe:** **  
**_I’ll see you tomorrow._ 😄

Beca’s entire face lights up when she sees the text notification. She never changed Chloe’s contact name in her phone which was of her name plus the sun emoji. She was really glad their old text messages didn’t transfer when she switched phones because their last messages were of Chloe begging her to talk to her again after she returned from camp. Beca had ignored every single one. She was glad this was now the first text on her phone from Chloe.

She waits a few moments before typing a reply.

 **Beca:** **  
**_See you tomorrow. Goodnight Chloe._

Chloe’s reply comes almost instantly.

 **Chloe:** **  
**_Goodnight Beca._ ✨

Beca goes to sleep with a smile on her face.

“I’m going to be late pretty much every day this week,” her mom says bringing her back to the present. “So can I trust you not to get take out every night?”

Beca eats the rest of breakfast and gives her mom a cheeky smile. “Can’t make promises. Cooking is hard.”

Donna rolls her eyes and goes to their fridge and opens the door. “Beca, this fridge is stocked with groceries; you will cook and consume them.”

Beca mock salutes her mom. “Yes, ma’am!” She says with a laugh.

“You are in an awfully good mood this morning,” Donna says smiling and reaches over to put her hand on Beca’s forehead. “Are you feeling alright?”

Beca playfully shoves her mom’s hand away. “Can a girl be in a good mood without being questioned?”

“Yes, a girl can, but you’re Beca Mitchell,” Donna points out. “You’re not really a functioning human until at least 12pm.”

Beca opens her mouth to retort but hears Jesse’s car honk. “Gotta go,” she says and grabs her lunch and shoves it in her bag. “Bye mom.” She leans over to kiss her mom on the cheek much to Donna’s surprise and heads for the door.

Beca gets into Jesse’s car and is met with a confused look. “Dude, what?”

“Are you okay?” Jesse asks.

“Yes, why?”

“You do know you just skipped to my car right?”

Beca looks scandalized. “I did not skip.”

“You skipped,” Jesse counters. “And you’re like glowing.”

“Oh my god,” Beca says exasperated. “Just drive, we’re going to be late for school.”

Jesse gives her one more strange look before pulling out of the driveway.

Beca gets pushed a little on her way to her locker by some really tall guy who didn’t hear her “Douchebag!” but recovers pretty quickly. She waits for Jesse before walking to their class when sees the cheer squad lead as usual by Alice. She looks extra tense today and Beca swears she could be sucking on a lemon by how pursed her lips were and her cheeks being extremely hollowed. She’s followed by her usual minions with Chloe being at the very end.

When their eyes meet, Chloe’s entire face lights up and she gives Beca the biggest smile. High school hallways were like freeway traffic so no one could really stop without being run over by fellow students but Chloe’s hand lightly squeezes her arm when she passes her by. Beca is still smiling when she enters her first class.

The morning goes by pretty fast and Beca is thankful she didn’t fail the pop quiz in math they took last week. She scrapes by with an 80 percent but had to hear Aubrey exclaim she _only_ got a 94 percent. As far as Mondays go, Beca was having a pretty okay day.

By the time lunch rolls by, Jesse is so concerned by her weird mood he pokes her cheek when he sits down next to her.

“Dude, what the hell?” She exclaims and pushes him. He barely moves.

“I just needed to make sure you weren’t a robot,” he says laughing and dodges the fist that was coming towards his arm.

“Fuck you.”

“Oh, there’s the Beca we all know and love.”

She brandishes her fork from her lunch. “I will stab you.”

Jesse holds up his hand in surrender and unpacks his own lunch. Benji joins them later looking glum and explains to them what exactly happened with his magic trick mishap.

“But is your bunny okay?” Beca asks once he was finished.

“Oh, yeah, Spock is fine. My dresser is not,” Benji says. “I’m to do all my tricks in the garage with proper ventilation and the fire extinguisher on hand at all times.”

“Sucks, man. You missed a good movie,” Jesse says. “Beca fell asleep of course.”

“I did not fall asleep,” Beca counters. She may have dozed off.

“I believe it.”

Beca jumps at Chloe’s voice. “Hi.” In the corner of her eye, she can see Jesse’s shit eating grin. 

“Hi,” Chloe echoes and looks around the table. “May I sit down?”

“Oh sure,” Beca says scrambling even though it was a bench table and there was plenty of room. She still pushes Jesse over though. 

Chloe takes a seat next to her and she brushes against her leg. Beca feels her entire body flush. “Hey Benji,” Chloe says with a smile and Benji smiles back. “Jesse,” she says more formally but Jesse gives her his goofy grin.

“Hey, Chloe, how you doing?” 

“Good,” she says sincerely. “How are you?”

“Oh just peachy,” Jesse a little too enthusiastically which causes Beca to side eye him. “But I just remembered I forgot to do my homework for next period, Benji? Help me out, dude?”

Benji looks at him a little confused but agrees to help him anyways. “See you later, ladies,” Jesse says as he gathers his things. He winks at Beca before he leaves. 

Beca doesn’t know whether to thank him or punch him. 

“How was your morning?” Chloe asks once they’re alone. Beca notices that Chloe seems like she moved a little closer to her. 

“It was good. How was yours?”

“Got a B+ on my chemistry test,” Chloe says smiling. “Thought I flunked.”

“You were always pretty good at math and science though,” Beca points out. 

“I used to have a really good study buddy,” Chloe says and pushes her shoulder against Beca and Beca blushes. “Speaking of, what time do you want to meet today?” She takes out her planner and a pen. Beca looks at it and can’t help but beam when she sees Chloe drew little rain clouds by her name on her calendar. 

“You can come over again after practice. Mom is gonna be late all this week and I’m not allowed to order out. Gotta cook.” She makes a face and Chloe giggles. 

“You can’t cook, Beca.”

“Excuse me, I can make pasta,” she says defensively but smiles. 

“Easy Mac doesn’t count as pasta,” Chloe points out and writes a time down on her planner. “I can help you cook dinner so you don’t give yourself food poisoning.”

“I think I’ll burn down the house first.”

Chloe laughs. “Oh god, please don’t start without me then.”

The bell rings and they both gather their things to head to World History. Beca notices Chloe hovers really close to her as they walk down the hallways. They just had turned down the hallway that led them down to their class when Beca hears someone call Chloe’s name. Chloe briefly turns around and rolls her eyes but continues to walk. The voice in question was the same guy Beca has seen in Chloe’s picture but it didn’t seem like Chloe wanted anything to do with him at that very moment.

“Chloe, jesus, wait up,” the guy says and jogs next to her almost pushing Beca out of the way.

“What do you want, Tom?” Chloe asks exasperated and picks up her pace. Beca notices her shirt sleeve was being pulled like Chloe was trying to get her to keep up.

“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all weekend,” he says annoyed and Beca rolls her eyes realizing it was also the same guy that called Chloe on Friday. She vaguely remembers Tom from grade school. She just remembered he played every sport imaginable.

“And I told you,” Chloe emphasizes and now really tugs on Beca to get her closer. “I was busy all weekend.”

“Doing what?” Tom demands.

Beca’s never seen Chloe so angry before when she turns to Tom. “Really none of your business, we are not dating Tom. And even if we were, you still have no right to demand my time.”

Tom rolls his eyes. “Come on Chloe, you still cannot be mad about that.” He picks up his pace as well and pushes himself between Beca and Chloe.

“Dude,” Beca says when she almost loses her balance.

“Do you mind?” Tom says to her but suddenly gets pushed out of the way by Chloe.

“You do not push her, Tom,” Chloe says angrily and reaches out to grab Beca’s wrist and pulls her towards her. “Let’s go, Beca.” They speed walk the rest of the way to class.

“What was his problem?” Beca asks when they finally reach their classroom. Chloe was still holding her wrist.

“He thinks we’re something we are definitely not,” Chloe says still angry but softens a little and squeezes Beca’s wrist. “Are you okay?”

Beca nods knowing that seems like a story for a different time. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was ready to kick him in the nuts though.” 

Chloe laughs and finally lets go of her wrist but not before rubbing her thumb against her skin. “I was about to do it myself.”

The bell rings and Ms. Henderson tells all of them to settle down and take their seats. Beca sits down while rubbing her wrist where Chloe was holding her. She felt very warm.

\---

Beca comes home to find a note from her mom on the fridge.

**_Remember Beca. No take out. Love you._ **

She signed it with a heart and Beca rolls her eyes. “Yes, mother,” she says to the empty kitchen. Beca opens the fridge to see what exactly she and Chloe could cook tonight that wouldn’t take too much time. There was defrosted beef that also had another note on it.

**_Make sure you take out another frozen meat when you cook this one so you’ll be ready to cook the following night too. I know these will get annoying but you got to learn more than pressing numbers on the microwave. Love you._ **

Beca laughs because of course her mom would meal prep for her. She figured all the other ingredients would make some kind of stir fry her mom normally makes. Chloe definitely needed to supervise her. 

Beca starts to clean the kitchen up a little and starts taking out the things she may need for dinner while she waits for Chloe. She looks around to see if her mom left another note of instructions for her and she finds it on one of the pans in the cupboard.

**_Cut the beef in appropriate size for your meal, season as desired, and add any veggies you want. Remember you don’t need to cook the beef all the way through so don’t freak out if there’s a little pink. Good luck and please don’t burn down the house._ **

“Thanks, mom,” Beca says sarcastically and takes out the cutting board to cut the meat. She puts on her mom’s apron and ties her hair. She was halfway through cutting the beef into thin slices when she hears the doorbell and she involuntarily smiles. She quickly washes her hand and makes her way to the front door. Chloe was once again in her sweats and had changed into glasses already.

“Hi,” she says and looks down at Beca’s apron. “You started already? Surprised the fire alarm isn’t going off.”

“Hilarious,” Beca says laughing and leads them into the kitchen. “Mom apparently thought the same because she left some general instructions. We’re apparently having some form of beef stir fry. I’m just cutting the meat.”

Chloe puts her stuff down and goes to wash her hands. “I’ll start mincing the garlic.”

Beca watches her move with ease and familiarity around her kitchen. Chloe’s mom was technically a chef but had a lot of trouble getting a job as such. Her dream was to open her own restaurant but for now, she’s manager at one of their local restaurants that was constantly short staffed so she had to play jack of all trades and waited tables as well as managed. She also filled in when the chef wasn’t in as well. Olivia Beale definitely taught her daughter a lot of culinary skills with the way Chloe efficiently chopped the ingredients. 

Beca gets transfixed at how fast Chloe minces the garlic and chops the carrots in uniform pieces.

“What?” Chloe says when she catches Beca staring.

Beca blushes and continues her own tasks. “Nothing.” She scoops the beef into a bowl and rinses her hands again. “Okay what next?”

“Can you handle cutting an onion?” 

Beca takes the onion Chloe was holding out to her and stares at it. “Um, I can try.” 

Chloe laughs. “I’m going to prep the rest of the ingredients.”

Beca brings her knife down onto the onion and immediately her eyes start to sting and water. “Ow, nope, nope,” she says and puts down the knife. She squeezes her eyes shut and is about to rub them when she feels Chloe spin her around by her waist. 

“Beca,” Chloe laughs and then pulls her hands down before they reach her eyes. She holds them down by their waists. 

“They hurt,” Beca whines and squeezes her eye tighter.

“Open them,” Chloe says between laughs. “You need to air them out, rubbing them makes them worse.”

Beca finally opens her eyes and blinks away her tears to find Chloe standing really close to her. Her eyes still sting but Chloe staring at her with those bright blue eyes makes Beca forget the pain for half a second.

“Better?” Chloe asks and Beca feels her thumbs rub against her hands.

“Yeah,” Beca breathes out. 

“Good, but I think I should take over the onions. Go heat up some olive oil in the sauté pan.” Chloe squeezes her hands and then playfully shoves her away from the cutting board.

Beca walks to the stove and turns on a burner. It was definitely too hot in that kitchen.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thanks everyone so much for reading! :)

Chloe pretty much bans Beca from helping any further after she almost starts a grease fire so she’s regulated to sitting at the kitchen table. Beca doesn’t mind since she has a perfect view of watching Chloe work. It was very mesmerizing. 

“I feel bad,” Beca says as Chloe finishes up their dinner. She also managed to find some rice to cook to go with their stir fry. “You just got done with what I am assuming was a grueling practice and now you’re making me dinner?” Beca fights the fantasy of seeing this as her future. Her and Chloe living together and cooking for each other. 

“Well I’m mostly cooking for me since I’m starving,” she quips with a wink. “But you know you’re on dish duty right?”

Beca glares at her. “That’s what dishwashers are for.”

Chloe shakes her head as she brings two bowls full of the stir fry and sets one in front of Beca. “Bon appétit!”

Beca smiles and takes her bowl. “Wanna eat this in the family room so we can watch TV?”

“Lead the way,” Chloe says and follows Beca out of the kitchen. Beca grabs two place mats for the coffee table because her mom would actually kill her if she destroyed the wood. Once they were situated, Beca grabs them both waters and she queues up the season of _Criminal Minds_ she was binging.

“Really?” Chloe whines. “The last episode you made me watch, the killer made his victims eat the fingers of his other victims!”

Beca laughs and hits play. “It’s interesting!” 

“It’s gross,” Chloe counters but starts eating her food anyways. “If I barf up my dinner during any of these episodes, you’re cleaning it up.”

Thankfully, none of the episodes they watch made Chloe want to gag and they finish their dinner pretty quickly. They were half through another episode when Beca notices Chloe had been scooting closer to her all night.

“I know we’re supposed to be working on our project,” Chloe starts. “But I have no motivation right now and I feel like we’ve made pretty decent headway. Do you mind if we just chill?”

“Fine with me,” Beca says smiling. “Let me just put these dishes away.” She lets the episode play while she goes to the kitchen. Her phone buzzes in her back pocket and she sees a text from Jesse.

 **Jesse:** **  
**_making out yet?_

 **Beca:** **  
**_shut up loser._

 **Jesse:** **  
**_didnt deny it tho._ 😉

 **Beca:** **  
****🖕**

Beca rolls her eyes but can’t help the goofy grin on her face. She puts their dirty dishes in the dishwasher before heading back to the family room. She stops short when she sees Chloe had now moved pretty much to the middle of couch half sitting where Beca originally was and had taken a blanket to cover herself. The only place to sit is right next to Chloe unless she sits at the very end causing awkwardness. She takes a deep breath before returning to the couch and Chloe automatically lifts the other end of the blanket for her.

Beca tries not to be too close but Chloe drapes the blanket over them both and her hand brushes up against Beca’s thigh. She attempts to be still as possible and keep her breathing normal even though her heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest. Beca tries to pay attention to the current episode that was playing but Chloe’s presence was so intoxicating. 

“When did you get these?” Chloe asks out of nowhere.

Beca was about to ask what she was talking about when she feels Chloe’s finger trace one of her multiple earrings. Beca is sure her ear turns red with how warm it felt the second Chloe touched her.

“Um,” Beca swallows as Chloe continues to run her fingers over her earrings paying particular attention to the ones on her helix. “Last summer,” she finally gets out. Chloe hums and her fingers move down to the stud on her lobe. She grasps it gently between her thumb and index finger and rubs around it. Beca takes a deep breath and tries not show how incredibly good it felt.

“Did they hurt?” Chloe continues not stopping her ministrations.

“The ones on top did,” Beca manages to get out and Chloe goes back to touching the ones on her helix. 

“I like them,” Chloe says and Beca can see her smiling from the corner of her eye. She’s yet to turn her face to look at Chloe afraid she may do something dumb. “How did you manage to get your mom on board?”

Beca lets out a little laugh and she feels Chloe tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “I didn’t, I guilt tripped my dad.”

Chloe chuckles. “They’re very you. These ones are my favorite.” She continues to play with the ones on top of her ear.

Beca finally chances and turns to look at Chloe was looking at her with a soft yet very intense expression. “Thanks,” Beca whispers and Chloe smiles at her. 

Thankfully (or unfortunately), Chloe finally takes her hand away and turns back to the TV. Beca tries not to sigh in disappointment. Her ear suddenly felt cold. She had no time to sulk though because she suddenly feels Chloe reach under the blanket to take a hold of her hand which she currently had clenched in a fist. 

“You still have your tattoo fund?” Chloe starts tracing the inside of Beca’s arm with her finger. She’s only now realizing how long Chloe’s fingers were.

Beca shivers this time and can only nod, thinking of the mason jar on her dresser filled with money. Chloe used to do this all the time when they were kids and it always gave her butterflies. She attributed to the fact that the inside of her arm was extremely ticklish but later realized it was because of her feelings for Chloe. It was also the place she wanted to get a tattoo and Chloe would say that she needed to get used to something touching the inside of her arm. 

“Me too.” 

Both of them had started a tattoo fund several years back. They agreed that when they both turned eighteen, they would get matching tattoos in relation to both their grandmothers. Chloe wanted a ladybug which was her grandmother’s nickname for her while Beca wanted a grasshopper. A reminder of all the summers she spent with her grandparents and how she tried to always catch one as a kid. 

Chloe smiles at her before taking back her hand again but doesn’t go too far. She keeps it by Beca and occasionally runs her fingers down her arm as they continue to watch TV. Beca is buzzing the entire time and is now only pretending to watch. After a few more moments of watching and trying to figure out how the team came to the conclusion of who the serial killer was, Beca finally takes the proverbial jump into the deep end and moves to lean against Chloe.

Chloe automatically lifts her arm out of the way and puts it around Beca’s shoulder so she was more comfortable. Beca doesn’t mean to let out a sigh of content but when she does, Chloe squeezes her closer to her.

\---

Beca assumes they doze off because the next thing she knew was her mom was shaking her awake with the most amused expression painted across her face.

“Hi,” Donna says and raises her eyebrows.

Beca looks at her position on the couch. She was practically laying on Chloe who was still sleeping. Her glasses were still on and completely askew. Beca immediately sits up and jostles Chloe awake. 

“Huh?” Chloe says confused and then remembers where she was. “Oh hi, Ms. Westgate.” She sits up and fixes her glasses before reaching for her phone on the coffee table. Her eyes widen when she sees the multiple missed calls and texts from her parents. “Oh my god, it’s almost 11?” She says panicked.

“It’s okay, honey, I already called your parents,” Donna says with amusement still in her eyes. “I take it you two didn’t get any work done?” She indicates the TV that was still streaming Criminal Minds and Beca goes to turn it off.

“We were taking a break and dozed off,” Beca fibs.

Donna smiles at them both and Chloe, for once, is blushing. “Did you at least cook for Chloe?”

“Yes, mom, we cooked ourselves dinner,” Beca says in her usual exasperated voice and Chloe laughs next to her.

“I’m assuming Chloe did the actual cooking because I didn’t smell smoke when I got home.” Beca does her signature eye roll and Donna laughs. “Chloe, your parents want you to spend the night. Even though it’s only a six block drive, they still don’t want you driving this late.”

Chloe smiles. “Thanks, Ms. Westgate.” Beca feels her body thrum with excitement again.

“You can sleep in the guest bedroom or bunk with Beca, whichever you prefer.” She gives Beca a meaningful look before heading upstairs. “Goodnight ladies, remember it’s a school night so please don’t stay up.”

Once her mom leaves the room, Beca smiles at Chloe. Her hair was messed up but she looks so cute and frazzled. “Um, do you want to borrow some clothes to sleep in?”

Chloe looks down at her sweats she’s been wearing since after practice and nods. “Yeah, these definitely are not to be slept in.”

Beca laughs and starts heading upstairs as well with Chloe following her. She grabs her gym bag on the way up.“Did you want to sleep in the guest room?” Beca asks hoping Chloe would say no.

“Do you mind if I slept in your room?”

Beca smiles so wide her face hurts. “No not at all, let me get you a change of clothes.”

They enter Beca’s room and she’s thankful she actually did some cleaning the past weekend. She watches as Chloe looks around.

“Your room looks nice,” Chloe comments and goes to Beca’s desk where her music mixing equipment was on. “Working on anything new?”

“Just been mixing some of my grandparents favorite songs to give to my grandpa to cheer him up.” Chloe looks at her curiously. “Good ol’ dad put him in an assisted living home shortly after grandma died,” she explains a little bitterly. “I try to visit him as much as I can.”

“I’m sorry,” Chloe says sincerely. “That’s really sweet though. You mixing him all these.”

Beca smiles again and then goes to her dresser to take out a pair of pajama shorts and a tshirt. “Here,” she hands them to Chloe. “There are spare toothbrushes in the bathroom. Do you have something to wear for tomorrow?”

Chloe lifts her gym bag. “I always got a change of clothes in this.” She sets it down by Beca’s bed and grabs the clothes. “I’ll be right back.”

Beca lets out the longest breath once Chloe leaves her and takes out her phone. She knows Jesse is still awake so she shoots him a quick text.

 **Beca:** **  
**_I got a ride to school tomorrow so no worries about picking me up._

 **Jesse:**  
 _Oh?_ 😉  
  
 **Beca:** **  
**_goodnight and shut up_

**Jesse:** **  
**_i’m sure your night will be better than mine. night becaw._

Beca just shakes her head and plugs in her phone to charge. She quickly changes into her sleepwear in case Chloe comes back while she’s half undressed. She takes her earrings off and puts them on her dresser and catches her reflection on her vanity mirror. Her entire face was flushed that she almost looked like she was radiating heat.

“Calm down, you idiot,” she tells her reflection. But the thought of sharing a bed with Chloe just made her flush even more. Beca takes one of her notebooks she uses to write all her music ideas in and uses it as a makeshift fan to try to cool her face. She’s not quite sure what everything that happened downstairs meant. All Beca knew was that the whole taking it slow with Chloe has certainly flown out the window. The little flicker of hope Beca had inside her for the past three years has ignited into a bigger flame just from this night alone. Beca gets lost in her thoughts that she actually jumps when Chloe returns

“Sorry,” Chloe apologizes but grins at Beca. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s okay,” Beca says and blushes again. Looking like a human tomato was definitely not Beca’s goal tonight but Chloe wearing her clothes was very much doing something to her. They were only an inch apart so the clothes fit Chloe but Chloe was a lot more muscular and built than she was. The shirt and shorts definitely accentuated Chloe’s very toned form.

“I like your shirt,” Chloe says snapping her out of her reverie. 

Beca looks down and realizes she was wearing the old Spider-Man shirt Chloe got her for one of her birthdays. “Thanks, um, I’m going to go and brush my teeth really quick.” Beca practically sprints to the bathroom and immediately turns on the cold tap and splashes her face. She takes her time brushing her teeth giving herself a few moments to compose herself. When she returns to her room, Chloe is already under the covers on ‘her’ side of the bed scrolling through her phone. It was the side she always slept on when they had sleepovers. 

“Would it be okay if I connected to your wifi?” Chloe teases shaking her phone in front of Beca. “You can type in the password yourself.”

Beca rolls her eyes mostly to herself and comes around the other side of the bed. “It’s Spider-Man. The ‘s’ is a dollar sign and the ‘a’ is the at symbol and then 115.” Beca situates herself under the covers and keeps a reasonable distance between her and Chloe. Chloe smiles as she types in the password.

“Come here and take a selfie with me.”

Beca looks at her incredulously. “Now?”

Chloe laughs and reaches over to pull Beca towards her. “Yeah, come on.” She lays down on the pillow and holds the phone above her face. “Come scoot closer too, you’re not in frame.”

Beca obliges and scoots closer so she was laying on Chloe’s pillow and Chloe leans her head towards her. “Smile!” Beca doesn’t but Chloe snaps the picture anyways and looks at it. “Aw, this is adorable! Do you mind if I post it on my instagram?” She shows Beca the picture and she had to admit, it was a really cute photo. Even though she wasn’t smiling, it reminded Beca of every picture they took as kids. Chloe smiling while Beca pouted next to her.

“Yeah, sure,” Beca says smiling. She was still on Chloe’s pillow so she moves back on to hers.

Chloe types away on her phone for a few moments and then shows Beca. Chloe never used over the top filters on her instagram and only puts on a slight coloring change so the lighting looked warmer. Chloe captioned it with just the rain cloud and sun emoji and then the hashtag #somethingsneverchange. Beca feels her heart swell.

Chloe puts her phone down on the side table and removes her glasses and finally settles in. She turns on her side to face Beca who suddenly finds her ceiling very interesting. 

“Hey Bec,” Chloe whispers and Beca immediately turns to face her. “Can I tell you something?”

Beca just nods. 

“That summer at camp gave me a lot to think about. What you told me,” Chloe pauses and takes a deep breath and Beca holds hers as well. “I didn’t know what to say at the moment because I needed time.”

“I know that now,” Beca says interrupting but Chloe shakes her head.

“But I wish I told you this sooner but you wouldn’t talk to me,” Chloe continues. “I thought about everything about our friendship and what you meant to me.” Beca doesn’t say anything and listens to every word Chloe says. 

Like how I felt weird when I didn’t see you every day,” she says smiling. “Mom and dad said we were a bit codependent but I didn’t care.” Beca smiles back because she had similar conversations with her parents. “I started to think about when Jesse started to hang out with us more and it was so obvious he liked you but you didn’t seem to notice.” 

Chloe was right about that. Beca definitely didn’t realize Jesse liked her until he told her the same day he kissed her. It was hard to pay attention to anything else when her all her focus was always on Chloe. Things started to click in place. Beca starts to recall all the times Chloe would talk about boys and would pointedly bring up Jesse as if she was trying to gage a reaction from her. 

“For some reason, I didn’t like the thought of someone else liking you which sounds weird and possessive but you were _my_ Beca,” Chloe says. “And then you told me you liked me and then it was like everything started to make sense.”

Beca heart stops. Chloe has been moving closer and closer to her as she spoke that their noses were almost touching. She can feel Chloe’s breath on her face and she can see Chloe’s eyes flicker from her own eyes down to her lips. 

“But my realization came too late. You already were so mad and didn’t want anything to do with me when I came back,” Chloe continues softly. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” Beca’s voice sounds so hoarse and her gaze never breaks Chloe’s.

“I like you too, Beca,” Chloe softly says that Beca almost misses it. “So much.”

Beca feels like she’s dreaming and what she just heard was just her own mind playing tricks. She can feel and hear herself breathing hard as Chloe continues to stare at her.

“Bec?”

Beca doesn’t know what to say so she leans in instead. Chloe lets out a surprised gasp when Beca’s lips touches hers and Beca closes her eyes when she feels her kiss back. Chloe’s lips are soft as she deepens the kiss and opens her mouth slightly. Beca feels Chloe’s tongue slip past her lips and can’t help the little moan she makes. The noise seems to surprise Chloe and she pulls back slightly.

“Sorry,” she apologizes quickly. “Was that too much?” Beca was just now noticing Chloe had her hand cradling the back of her head. Their bodies were pressed impossibly close together and Beca felt like she was on fire. She definitely didn’t mind.

“No,” Beca says smiling. “Not at all but um, that was a lot to unpack.”

Chloe laughs and leans over to give her a light kiss. “Okay, we’ll talk more later, how about we go to sleep? Because your mom is right, it is a school night.”

Beca groans and throws the blanket over her head. Chloe giggles as she tries to go under with her. They hold the blanket over their heads and gaze at each other. The soft glow from Beca’s bedside lamp filters in dimly and their faces are barely illuminated but Beca feels like she’s glowing.

“Hi,” Chloe says and reaches over to cup Beca’s cheek.

“Hi,” Beca echoes and leans into her touch and turns to kiss her open palm. “Goodnight, Chlo.”

“Goodnight, Bec.” 

Beca turns around and pulls Chloe’s arm around her and turns off the lamp. She falls asleep to the sound of Chloe softly breathing against her.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thanks so much for reading and commenting! This chapter is pretty much just fluff with not a whole lot of plot but I feel like sometimes you just need that. Hope you all enjoy!

Beca would’ve passed the entire night off as a dream if she didn’t wake up to a post it note stuck on her forehead the following morning. She pulls it off and squints through her sleep filled eyes and sees Chloe’s neat handwriting. 

**_You still sleep like the dead. Went for a run and probably eating breakfast with your mom when you read this._ **

She signs it with a smiley face Beca can’t help the smile on her own face. She grabs her phone and sees it was still thirty minutes before her alarm rings but Beca felt so refreshed. 

She takes a quick shower and haphazardly towel dries her hair. She knows it’ll be frizzy the entire day as it dries but Beca couldn’t care less. When she makes her way downstairs, she hears Chloe and her mom laughing and another smile forms on her face.

“You’re up early,” her mom says when she takes a seat next to Chloe. Beca thought it was unfair how absolutely beautiful Chloe looks at any given moment. 

Beca shrugs and smiles and she feels Chloe press her leg against hers under the table. “Had a really good night sleep,” she says as a plate of food was put in front of her.

“Chloe was up at the same time as me,” her mom says. “We figured you’d be sleeping through your alarm.”

Chloe laughs and steals a piece of bacon off Beca’s plate. “We were saying how you’d probably be sleeping if the house fell into a sinkhole.”

Beca playfully glares at them both. “You two get up at an ungodly hour. 5:45 in the morning is disgusting.”

Laughter fills the entire kitchen and Beca never felt so happy. 

“Alright, I have to head to the studio, so many things to do before this artist has her installation,” her mom says as she packs up her bag and then turns to Beca. “Can I trust you to feed yourself again?”

“Mom, please, I’m pretty useless in the kitchen but I still know how to order take out.”

“Beca,” Donna warns. “What did I say about that?”

“No worries, Ms. Westgate, I’ll make sure she eats properly,” Chloe says winking at Beca. Beca blushes furiously.

“Thanks, sweetie,” Donna says completely missing the innuendo which makes Beca blush even harder. “I feel like Beca would have scurvy without you and me around.”

“Thanks, mom,” Beca deadpans but jumps when she feels Chloe’s hand on her thigh. 

“Alright ladies, you have a good day at school.”

Chloe waits until Beca’s mom is out of the house and she hears the car pull out of the driveway before she pulls Beca into a kiss.

Beca makes a noise of surprise but quickly falls into the kiss and closes her eyes. 

“Hi,” Chloe says when they pull apart. Beca still has her eyes closed but she slowly opens them and licks her lips. 

“Hi,” she says back. “Did my mom make you pancakes for breakfast?”

Chloe lets out a laugh and gives her another kiss. “Yes, weirdo, how did you know?”

Beca smiles and licks her lips again. “I can taste the syrup on your lips.”

Chloe shakes her head. “I hope you don’t mind that I used your shampoo and conditioner when I showered this morning.”

“Not at all,” Beca says reaching over to tuck a strand of hair behind Chloe’s ear and cups her cheek with her hand. Beca stares at her for a few moments not quite believing this was all happening.

“You’re staring,” Chloe says after a few moments and raises her own hand to cover Beca’s. 

“Sorry, I’m just thinking how this time last week we weren’t even talking.” She feels Chloe squeeze her hand. “I’m sorry for being in a bad mood for three years.”

Chloe dismisses the comment. “Hey no dwelling on that now. Let’s concentrate on the present and how incredibly cute you look in this.” She eyes her up and down and bites her lip.

Beca looks down on her chosen outfit. It was just a regular long sleeve dark blue shirt and her usual worn out jeans. Beca wouldn’t ever describe herself as cute but had no problem accepting Chloe calling her that. She blushes again when she notices Chloe was practically scanning her with her eyes.

“We should get to school,” Beca mumbles and gets up. She felt like she was about to combust with how Chloe was looking at her. She puts her empty breakfast plate in the sink and notices two brown lunch bags on the counter. One was labeled her name while the other was labeled with Chloe’s. “My mom apparently made you lunch too,” Beca says taking the two bags.

Chloe smiles so wide. “Your mom is sweet.” She takes the brown bag from Beca and puts it in her bookbag.

Chloe’s car was just her dad’s old car that had way too many miles on it and made a really loud noise when you first turned it on. 

“It’s safe,” Chloe reassures her when she pulls out of the driveway and notices Beca’s wide eyes of concern at the sound of the engine sputtering. “Trust me, Paulette never lets me down.”

Beca looks at her strangely. “Paulette?”

Chloe laughs and turns down the street. “Yeah, that’s what my dad named her and it kinda stuck.”

Beca laughs along with her as they drive to school. The inside of the car was definitely super clean. A lot cleaner than Jesse’s car that’s for sure. Which didn’t surprise Beca at all with how neat and organized Chloe was. There was hardly any dirt anywhere for it being such an old car and the air freshener clipped on the air vent looks like it gets changed regularly. The backseat was covered with a seat cover which Beca assumes is where the dog sits on during car rides. Beca suddenly has an image of her and Chloe making out in the backseat of this car and blushes again.

They were only a few minutes away from school when reality starts to crash down on Beca and panic begins to settle in. “Chloe,” she says suddenly when she sees the school parking lot only a block away when they’re stopped at a red light.

“Yeah?”

Beca turns to Chloe as they wait for the light to turn green. “Um, not that I’m not extremely happy with what’s going on between us,” she pauses when Chloe turns to her and gives her that special smile. “I’m not quite sure I’m ready for…” She stops and swallows. The light turns green and Chloe pulls in the school parking lot. She turns into a spot right next to Aubrey Posen’s car who was currently leaning against her own passenger door and looking curiously at Beca. Her heart starts beating faster in panic.

“Bec,” Chloe says softly and Beca turns to look at her. “I understand. We’ll keep this between us until we’re ready okay? I know this is a cesspool,” Chloe says indicating the school. “I won’t let anything happen to you or us okay?” She reaches over and squeezes Beca’s hand.

Beca can only nod but takes great comfort from Chloe’s words and touch. “I don’t want you to think I’m keeping you or us a dirty little secret.”

“I can never think that,” Chloe reassures her. “I’m not going to act differently around you but I’ll leave the kisses behind closed doors okay?” She smiles at Beca.

“Okay,” Beca says. “Just between us for now.”

Chloe nods over to the window where Aubrey is still staring at them curiously. “Do you mind if I tell Aubrey? Because she kinda already knows about my feelings for you.”

Beca widens her eyes at that. “She does?” Aubrey was never one of Beca’s favorite people but Chloe and her have been friends since Aubery first moved there back in the fifth grade. In fact, Beca had become pretty jealous of her when they were growing up when Chloe and Aubrey would hang out without her. They never really clicked and it didn’t help that Beca pretty much blamed Aubrey for Chloe becoming a cheerleader. It was completely irrational but Beca and Aubrey were just like oil and water.

“She’s not as bad as you think she is, Beca,” Chloe says with amusement in her voice. “In fact, I feel like you two would actually get along.”

Beca makes a face at that. “Do you trust her?”

“Beca, I wouldn’t ever jeopardize our relationship,” she assures her again. “And plus I’m pretty sure she’d be relieved I finally told you. I’m sure I was starting to annoy her with my Beca stories.”

Beca blushes at that. “Okay, if it’s okay I tell Jesse?”

“Of course,” Chloe grins at her before squeezing her hand again. “But we should leave the car before Aubrey dies of curiosity waiting for us.”

They finally exit the car and Aubrey stares at the both of them with a raised eyebrow. “Beca,” she says stiffly.

Beca smirks at her. “Aubrey.” She turns to Chloe and gives her a cheeky smile. “I’ll see you later.” She walks away but not before hearing Aubrey asking Chloe what the hell happened last night. Chloe’s laughter still rings in her ears when she heads towards her locker where Jesse was already waiting for her with his trademark goofy grin.

“So,” he starts as she watches Beca turn the dial on the padlock of her locker. “How was your night?”

Beca rolls her eyes and grabs her books for class. “Not giving you details dude.”

“Not even about that mark on your neck?”

“What?!” Beca says incredulously and immediately checks her reflection in the mirror of her locker door. It took her only a half second to realize that Jesse was being an ass considering Chloe didn’t even kiss her neck the night before. “You’re an ass,” she tells him as he howls with laughter. 

“Sorry, Beca, but you’re so easy.” Beca wasn’t mad in the slightest but she still glares at him. “I’m happy for you, dude,” Jesse says when his laughter subsides. 

“Thanks, idiot,” she says sincerely and closes her locker. They make their way to their class and Beca actually waits for the cheerleaders to do their normal walk by. Chloe is always at the end of the group but this time Aubrey hangs back with her (usually she’s up front with Alice) no doubt getting the details from last night. 

Chloe once again squeezes her arm when they pass each other and Beca smiles the rest of the morning.

It’s hard to pay attention for the rest of the day and more than once Beca gets chastised during class for not paying attention. She mumbles her apologies but continues to daydream about Chloe. It didn’t help Chloe kept texting her throughout the day with the sweetest things.

 **Chloe:** **  
**_I already miss you. I can’t wait to kiss you again._

 **Beca:** **  
**_youre corny but me too._

 **Chloe:** **  
**_do you know how cute you are when you blush? bet youre blushing now_

And she was. Beca quickly looks up from her phone to make sure the teacher didn’t see her texting during class. They usually get a week’s worth of detention for using their phones during class.

 **Beca:** **  
**_shut up. i am not._

Chloe just sends a kissing face emoji but Beca has to put her phone quickly away when the teacher starts to look around the classroom.

When lunch time arrives, Beca was once again glowing when she sits down at her usual table and Jesse teases her again. She tries to steer the conversation to something more mundane because while all Beca wanted to do was talk about Chloe, everything was still very new and she didn’t want to jinx anything. Plus with Benji being there, she didn’t want him to start asking questions either.

Chloe joins them again near the end of lunch and slips in next to Beca and automatically puts her hand on her thigh under the table. Beca jumps and tries not to be conspicuous. 

“Hey, Jesse,” Chloe says a little more cheerfully than she usually does when she addresses him and squeezes Beca’s thigh causing her entire body to flush.

“Chloe,” Jesse says smiling. “Can’t believe you got this one to get up before her alarm this morning.”

“She had a lot of incentive,” Chloe says coyly and Beca gives her a look of warning although there was no malice behind it..

Jesse snorts. “Oh I’m sure she does now.”

“Dude,” Beca says glaring at him as well but Chloe rubs her hand soothingly on her thigh. 

“I’m just joking, Beca,” Jesse says tossing a chip at her. “Anyways, since this one is still grounded,” he indicates Benji who was too enthralled in whatever was on his phone to pay attention to what they were saying. “You girls want to come with me to the Indiana Jones marathon playing this weekend?”

“No,” Beca says at the same time Chloe says “Hell yeah we do.” Beca groans.

“Come on, Bec,” Chloe says rubbing her hand up and down again on her thigh but goes a little higher this time. “It’ll be _fun._ ” She gives Beca a meaningful look but Beca was paying attention to Chloe’s hand that was raising her body temperature up way too high.

“Don’t you have your competition this weekend?” Beca says almost squeaking.

“That’s on Saturday, the marathon is Friday night,” Chloe points out and grins at how red Beca is turning. She thankfully takes mercy on her and stops her hand movements.

“Sweet!” Jesse exclaims. “We can meet at the drive in. Bring your own blankets.” 

Beca doesn’t have time to protest because the bell rings signalling the end of lunch. Beca feels like her legs are jelly when she stands up so she gladly accepts Chloe’s arm that she loops through hers when they walk to their next class.

“I can’t believe you’re making me go to the movies,” she whines when Jesse bids them farewell at the hall entrance.

“And I can’t believe you think you’ll be watching any of it during,” Chloe replies coyly. “We were told to bring our own blankets.”

Beca stops abruptly when they reach the door of the classroom and someone bumps into her. 

“Move Beca,” Stacie Conrad says playfully and physically moves her out of the way. “You okay there, Mitchell?” She says laughing at Beca’s wide eyes.

Chloe laughs and gently shoves Beca towards her desk. “I think I broke her.”

Beca blindly finds her desk, thinking of what Chloe said. Maybe going to the movies won’t be so bad afterall. 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *insert obligatory apology about not updating in forever*  
> I could write some really self deprecating mantra right here but I just hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

Friday could not come fast enough for Beca, which of course meant her entire week dragged. It didn’t help that Chloe had to cancel all their project meet ups since Alice was going absolutely crazy with practice. Beca barely saw her during the day and Chloe wasn’t even at lunch because she had “mandatory” practice. She only really saw her in their one shared class but with Chloe sitting near the front, it was impossible to communicate with her without getting in trouble. Still didn’t stop Beca from texting her throughout class. She’d smile every single time Chloe would reach for her pocket where her phone kept vibrating. More than once Chloe would turn to her quickly to give her a grin and a wink. It made Beca’s heart swell. But that’s really the only time they saw each other during the day. Chloe was too tired to talk after practice and often fell asleep on the phone to the sound of one of Beca’s new mixes she’d play for her at night. Beca wasn’t too thrilled having her time with Chloe cut short because of cheerleading especially since they were just rebuilding their relationship.   
  
So that’s how Beca finds herself at the Beale’s front door at 8:30 on a Thursday night because she was missing Chloe something fierce. She kind of wanted to hit herself because she technically saw her everyday that week but it wasn’t the same. She rings the doorbell and hopes Chloe’s parents aren’t annoyed by her random visit. She didn’t even tell Chloe she was coming over. She hears Noodle bark before the door opens.   
  
Chloe’s mom, Olivia, smiles widely as soon as she sees Beca. “Beca! Come in,” she moves to the side to let Beca come in.   
  
Beca smiles and walks in. “I’m sorry to stop by unannounced late at night,” Beca begins but Olivia was already dismissing it.   
“Beca, you’re always welcome here at any time. It’s so nice to see you again.” Chloe looked exactly like her mom except Olivia had blonde hair but she had the same warm smile and blue eyes.    
  
Beca smiles. “Thanks, Mrs. Beale, I know it’s a school night but I just wanted to give Chloe this.” She holds up Chloe’s planner Beca accidentally took with her. Ms. Henderson had called Chloe to stay a few moments after class and Beca went to grab her planner that was on her desk to wait for her at the door. Unfortunately, the little meeting took longer than Beca expected and she didn’t want to be late to her next class so she left with it.   
  
“Chloe’s taking a bath right now, she just got back from practice a half hour ago.” Beca doesn’t miss the slight frown on her face when she says it and honestly Beca could relate. “But go ahead and wait in her room.”   
  
Beca smiles again. “Thanks.”   
  
“Honey, this coffee tastes like dirt,” Mr. Beale says coming from the kitchen holding a mug. His face brightens when he sees Beca. “Well makes sense, because-”   
  
“-it was ground just this morning,” Beca finishes for him and he starts laughing.    
  
Olivia rolls her eyes playfully. “Stephen, why are you drinking coffee at 8:30 at night?”   
  
“It’s decaf, Liv,” he says, taking a sip.   
  
Beca smirks as they continue to banter and heads on upstairs to Chloe’s room. She feels a little weird being up there without Chloe but she takes a seat on the edge of Chloe’s bed. Noodle comes in shortly after, wagging her tail, and jumps on and settles next to her. Beca smiles and starts petting her and she immediately puts her head in Beca’s lap.   
  
“Well, aren’t you just the cutest?” Noodle turns on her back and presents her belly to Beca and she immediately rubs it. “Stop, I’m going to steal you.”   
  
“Oh my god, what are you doing here?” Chloe’s surprised voice says.    
  
Beca’s breath catches when Chloe comes into her room in nothing but a robe. Her hair was wet and pushed to one side and Beca can see water droplets falling off her neck. Her face flushes.   
  
“Your mom said I could wait for you here,” she says, clearing her suddenly dry throat.    
  
Chloe goes to close her door and she takes a few steps towards her bed and leans down to pull Beca into a kiss. Beca makes a little noise of surprise but reaches out to hold Chloe’s face and slips her tongue past Chloe’s lips. It’s only been a couple days since their last kiss but it was a couple days too long.    
  
It’s only when Chloe bites Beca’s bottom lip, Beca remembers that Chloe was pretty much naked. Not to mention Noodle started to scratch on the door to get out. Beca reluctantly pulls back. “Chlo, wait,” she says a little breathless.   
  
Chloe smiles. “Sorry, I know.” She gives her a little peck on the cheek before going to the door. She cutely apologizes to Noodle before opening it to let her out. “Let me get changed really quick.”   
  
Beca just nods as Chloe grabs a few clothes and goes into her walk-in closet to change. She comes out a few moments later looking refreshed and takes a seat back on the bed next Beca.

“Not that I’m not really happy to see you, but what are you doing here so late?” She reaches out to hold Beca’s hand.

“I accidentally took this today when I was waiting for you after World History,” she holds out her planner.   
  
“Oh my god, I thought I lost it, thank you!” She leans over to give Beca another kiss.   
  
“You know, kids these days use their phones for everything,” Beca starts sarcastically. Chloe playfully shoves at shoulder.   
  
“Shut up, I like writing things physically down. And I can doodle too.’” Chloe opens to a page where she shows Beca a little doodle. It was the letters CPB+BCM in a heart and arrow.    
  
Beca beams. “You’re so corny!”   
  
“And you’re so cute,” Chloe counters, bringing Beca’s hand to her lip to kiss it. “And while I’d love to spend the rest of the night kissing you and cuddling you, I have a ton of homework to finish.” She frowns and indicates her desk with all her open books. “Plus mom is all annoyed cheerleading has been taking all my time.”   
  
Beca nods, understanding. “How do you have tomorrow off from practice when it’s literally the day before competition? Figured Alice would be GPS tracking you all tomorrow.”   
  
Chloe rolls her eyes. “Alice lets us have a whole full day of rest before competition. Isn’t that nice of her?”   
  
Beca grimaces. “I’m telling you, she’s a serial killer.”   
  
Chloe gets off the bed, still holding Beca’s hand, and leads them out of her room and downstairs. She doesn’t drop her hand when they pass the living room where her parents were watching TV “I’m just gonna walk Beca to her car,” she tells them.   
  
Both her parents turn around and smile widely at the both of them. Beca feels herself blush again.   
  
“Okay, sweetie, Beca, whenever you and your mom are both free, come over and I’ll make us dinner.” Mrs. Beale says with a smile.   
  
“Okay, I’ll let my mom know. Goodnight.”   
  
“Goodnight, kiddo!” Mr. Beale says, raising his cup of coffee to her.   
  
Chloe walks her to her car and pushes her slightly against the driver’s door and leans in for another kiss.   
  
“Chloe,” Beca says, laughing against her mouth.    
  
“I’m sorry, I just can’t stop kissing you.” She leans her forehead against Beca’s and her thumbs rub against her hips. “I have three years of kisses to make up for.” She grins. “And thensome.”   
  
Beca blushes again and playfully pushes her away. “Not in front of your house, you won’t.” She has a brief moment of panic when she sees a car drive by. “I’ll see you tomorrow, go do your homework.”   
  
Chloe rolls her eyes. “Okay, bossy, I’ll see you tomorrow.”   
  
Beca leans in to kiss her quickly on cheek one last time before getting into her car. Chloe stays in her driveway, watching her drive until she turns the corner.    
  
\---   
  
“So are you ready for tonight?” Jesse asks her at lunch.   
  
Beca has been thinking about nothing except for tonight all week. Was she ready to be in a park full of people not watching the movie playing while her and Chloe fool around under a blanket? Maybe?   
  
“I’m ready to fall asleep watching a million hours of Illinois Jones,” she deadpans.   
  
Benji laughs and Jesse rolls his eyes. “Well you’re lucky, they’re only doing the three movies since the fourth one doesn’t exist. So it’s going to be about six hours long instead of eight.”   
  
Beca almost chokes on her apple. “Six hours? It’s going to be six hours?” There were about a million other things she could be doing with Chloe for six hours than watching three movies.   
  
“It’ll go by fast,” Chloe says, now joining them. She takes her usual seat right next to Beca and her hand immediately finds Beca’s knee under the table. Beca doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to Chloe touching her without feeling warm all over.   
  
“Six hours,” Beca repeats. “You expect me to watch a movie for six hours?”   
  
Chloe laughs and squeezes her knee. “I’ll buy you extra sour straws.”   
  
Beca grumbles but blushes at the way Chloe smiles at her.    
  
“So it starts right at 5, so I’m thinking we can all meet around 4:45,” Jesse continues. He takes something out of his backpack and spreads it on the table between them.   
  
“Of course you have a map of the park, you loser,” Beca says laughing but Jesse ignores her and takes out a marker as well.   
  
“I’m pretty tight with the groundskeeper of the park so he’s going to reserve us this spot.” He circles something on the map. “It’s a great spot to see the screen but far away enough so we’re not too close to anyone else.”    
  
“How very Wedding Planner of you, Jesse,” Chloe says amused.   
  
“I know, right?” Beca has no idea what they’re talking about. “Also, it’s pretty, um,” Jesse clears his throat like he’s not quite sure what he’s going to say and glances at Benji who was looking forlornly at the map. Beca looks at him curiously.   
  
“Pretty what?” Beca prompts.   
  
“Um, secluded?” Jesse finally says and Beca widens her eyes in acknowledgment.   
  
“Thanks, Jesse,” Chloe says appreciatively and turns to Beca with that smile again.   
  
“Man, I wish I could go,” Benji says sadly.    
  
“No worries, dude, next month is Back to the Future, we’ll go again then.” Jesse pats him on the back.   
  
“We are not going then,” Beca says to Chloe..   
  
Chloe pats her knee. “We’ll see.” Beca knows they’re going next month. “Since I don’t have practice after school, I can just take you home and we can head on over to the park together,” Chloe says with a wide smile. “You don’t mind if we chill at your house before we have to leave right?”    
  
Beca nods her head vigorously. “No, yeah, chilling sounds good.” She doesn’t miss Jesse snorting into his drink. The bells rings and Chloe links their arms again as they walk to World History.    
  
“I promise I’ll take you out on a real date when we do something we both like,” Chloe tells her as they navigate the hallway traffic. “I know this isn’t ideal.”   
  
Beca smiles. “I don’t mind, I get to be with you for six hours. Granted it’s also with Jesse but he’s good at tuning things out.”   
  
“I promise I won’t grope you in front of Jesse.”   
  
Beca lets out a laugh as they enter their classroom. “Thanks for the heads up.”   
  
“But,” Chloe stops at her desk and leans close into Beca and lowers her voice. “The weather says it will get a little cold tonight so we can always get in my car.” She waggles her eyebrows and it should look silly but on Chloe, Beca thinks it’s sexy.   
  
“Okay,” she says dumbly.    
  
“You are so cute.”   
  
“Chloe,” Beca says with gritted teeth and blushes. She looks around the classroom but no one is paying attention to them in the slightest. “You’re ruining my rep.”   
  
Chloe giggles and playfully pushes Beca towards her desk just as the final bell rings. “Alright, you’re a badass.”   
  
“Thank you.” She playfully glares at her before sitting at her desk.    
  
The rest of day drags and Beca practically runs to her locker as soon as the final bell rings. She hastily shoves whatever books she thinks she needs for weekend homework before slamming it shut and makes her way to the parking lot. Chloe’s leaning against her car door, waiting for her and Beca feels that familiar flutter in her stomach.

“Your chariot awaits, m’lady,” Chloe says dramatically and opens the passenger door for her. Beca rolls her eyes but her laugh betrays her and shoves her book bag in the back before taking a seat.   
  
“You know your chariot is like 100 miles away from breaking down right?”  
  
“Shush, she’ll hear you,” Chloe pets the dashboard of her car. “It’s okay Paulette, she didn’t mean it.”  
  
Beca shakes her head and laughs. “Oh my god, just drive.”  
  
Chloe is about to start the car when someone taps on her window causing both girls to jump. “Jesus Christ, Tom,” Chloe says angrily as she rolls down her window. “What the hell?”  
  
Tom looks at Chloe and then at Beca curiously. “I’ve been texting you all day,” he starts, annoyed.  
  
Beca can’t see her face but she’s sure Chloe rolls her eyes. She had no idea what Tom’s deal was or why he obviously couldn’t take a hint.  
  
“I’m aware, Tom, and like I said we’ve got nothing to talk about, so leave me alone.”  
  
“Chloe, come on, just give me another chance. It didn’t mean anything.” Beca almost felt sorry for him. Almost.  
  
Chloe takes a deep breath and Beca sees her shoulders raise and then sag. “Tom, for the last time, I’m not interested in what you have to say and frankly I’ve moved on a while ago so please, respect my wishes and leave me alone.” There was a finality in Chloe’s tone that was both scary and if Beca was being truthful, really hot.   
  
Tom just rolls his eyes before finally stepping back from Chloe’s car. “Whatever, Chloe, have fun hanging out with losers.” He pointedly looks at Beca as he says it. Beca rolls her eyes because as far as insults go, she’s heard a whole lot worse.  
  
“Shut up, Tom,” Chloe bites back. Before he could get in another word, Chloe rolls up the window and starts the car.   
  
The short drive to Beca’s house is quiet and she can see Chloe’s jaw clenched. She’s morbidly curious as to what happened between Chloe and Tom because as far as high school gossip goes, Beca remained peacefully ignorant. A part of her liked it that way because she didn’t want to hear about the people Chloe dated. But she wasn’t completely oblivious during the three years of them not being friends. She knows guys practically tripped over themselves over Chloe and she definitely couldn’t blame them. Tom seemed to be completely still hung up on her.  
  
“What happened?” Beca finally asks once they’re inside her house. She sees a note from her mom on the fridge that reminds her of her 12:30 curfew and yes Chloe can stay over if she wants.   
  
“Huh?” Chloe asks as she takes a seat at the kitchen table.   
  
“Between you and Tim.”  
  
Chloe snorts. “Tom,” she corrects. She takes a sip of lemonade that Beca offered her before answering. Beca braces herself as she hovers around the table. She doesn’t know if she wants to sit or stand.. “We dated for a bit. I wanted to be exclusive and so did he.”  
  
Beca finally sits down and takes a sip of her own lemonade. “So what happened?”  
  
Chloe lets out a bitter laugh. “Literally the day after we decided to be exclusive, he hooked up with Nikki Crossway at a party. He played the ‘I was drunk’ card. That ended that night really fast.”  
  
Beca nods, not really knowing how to react. On one hand, she hates that someone had the audacity to cheat on Chloe. On the other hand, she’s really glad that Chloe wasn’t with that douchenozzle anymore. Still didn’t stop her from wanting to castrate Tom.  
  
“He’s been trying to get back together with me ever since and as you can tell, he’s not quite accepting that I don’t want anything to do with him.”  
  
Beca nods again and scratches the back of her neck, trying to think of a way to ask her next question. Chloe is staring at her expectantly since she hasn’t said anything for a while.  
  
She clears her throat. “Did you two, um.” She stops herself, not quite sure if she wants to know the answer.  
  
“Did we have sex?” Chloe prompts gently.   
  
“It’s none of my business, forget I asked,” Beca says quickly and gets up. She downs the rest of her drink and puts the glass in the sink, her back facing Chloe.  
  
“We’ve always told each other everything, Bec,” Chloe starts gently and Beca takes a deep breath. She knows the answer but she’s not sure if she wants to hear it. Beca was stupid think otherwise. Of course Chloe would have sex with her boyfriend. It’s high school and Chloe was a walking cliche.   
  
“Forget it, you don’t have to tell me.” Beca makes a show of washing the glass when she feels the air shift behind her. She knows Chloe is standing right there.  
  
“Bec, it’s in the past.” Chloe’s voice is soft and Beca feels her warm hand on her shoulder. She lets out a puff of air and turns off the faucet and dries her hands.  
  
“I know, I just.” Beca takes another breath and finally turns around. Chloe is giving her a small smile and waits for her to finish. “I just wish things were different.” It’s strange and naive but Beca had the fantasy of her and Chloe being each other’s firsts. Beca knows it shouldn’t bother her but there’s the irrational voice in her head that’s been there for the past three years.  
  
“I know, but we can’t change the past, Bec.” She reaches over and brushes a strand of hair from Beca’s face. “But we can let it go and concentrate on now and the future.”  
  
Beca smiles a little at that. “Okay,” she relents. “I’m going to change and then we can head to the park.”  
  
“Okay,” Chloe says back and leans in to kiss her on the cheek. “I’m going to change too.”  
  
Beca heads upstairs and tries to clear her head. It wasn’t the most ideal way to start their movie night but Beca was glad they got that piece of information out of the way. She just needed to calm the nagging voice in the back of her head because Chloe was right. She can’t dwell on the past when her present and future was downstairs probably packing snacks and drinks for them so they didn’t need to pay for overpriced concession food.   
  
Beca changes into her yellow plaid shirt that she seldoms wears but it was Chloe’s favorite color. When she heads back downstairs, Chloe was changed into a thin blue sweater that made her eyes even bluer.   
  
“You look nice,” Chloe says smiling. “I love that shirt.”  
  
Beca grins and tugs at her shirt. “Thanks, you look really nice too.”  
  
“Thanks, babe.” Beca blushes at the pet name. “So I’ve raided your pantry and packed us some chips and put six bottles of Coke in your mini cooler.” She holds it up for Beca.  
  
“Do they have like real food there?” Beca asks as she folds up a few blankets to take with them.   
  
“They have hot dogs and burgers.”  
  
“Okay good.” Beca didn’t know if she could survive on chips and Coke for six hours  
  
“Ready?”  
  
“Yup.” Beca grabs the blankets while Chloe gets the chips and cooler and they both head out to Chloe’s car.   
  
Beca tries to focus on how fun tonight was going to be and how she and Chloe were going to sneak around under blankets and in her car. But Beca couldn’t quiet that nagging voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Tom’s voice.   



	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 😊😊😊

Beca and Chloe bicker on their way to the park. The drive usually took about 30 minutes on a good day or 45 with traffic and Beca didn’t want to listen to the radio and wanted to play her music from her phone. Only problem was with Chloe’s car being so old, it wasn’t bluetooth compatible.

“Just plug it into the auxiliary cord,” Chloe says after Beca kept switching stations to find something “decent” to play for their longer than usual drive.

“My phone doesn’t have a headphone jack,” Beca says, a little annoyed, but grabs the cord anyways. “Why is it coming out of your center console?” Beca tugs the cord a little and sees that it looked like it disappeared under the console and led to the back of the car.

“Because,” Chloe explains patiently. “My car is old and I needed to connect it directly to the speakers in the back of the car. Stop pulling it, you’ll bend the wire.”

Beca huffs and lets go. “I don’t want to listen to the radio,” she whines.

“Oh my god,” Chloe says laughing. “Here, plug in my phone.” She hands Beca her iPhone which was one of the older versions that still had a headphone jack. The benefit of having a rich guilt ridden dad, Beca usually got the latest everything. Sometimes she wonders if she comes off as a brat to strangers. 

“No, your taste in music is-” She stops abruptly when Chloe whips her head towards her and raises her eyebrow. 

“Do you want to finish that sentence, Beca Mitchell?” 

Beca swallows. Angry Chloe was a very hot Chloe but she didn’t want to mess with her. “I’ll just play my phone on speaker,” she mumbles. She presses play and puts it in the cup holder so the sound amplifies. 

Chloe shakes her head and giggles. “You’re the biggest brat, you know that?” 

Beca grumbles and stares out the window with her arms crossed across her chest. 

“Stop pouting, you big baby.” Chloe reaches over to poke at her cheek and makes Beca involuntarily smile.

“Stop that and pay attention to the road,” Beca says between laughs as she tries to bat Chloe’s hand away. Chloe just grabs it and holds it over the center console. She runs her thumbs across Beca’s fingers in a soothing motion. Beca’s heart beats faster.

The park was packed with cars and Beca frowns. She was not much of an exhibitionist. Why people wanted to sit in the park watching old movies for hours was beyond her.

“Ugh, I hate driving on the grass,” Chloe says and turns down a path marked by an arrow on a poster board. “Where are we going?”

Beca takes out the map that Jesse had given her at the end of the day. “Keep driving and turn left on the third path.” Chloe follows the instructions and Beca breathes a sigh of relief when they turn and sees that there were hardly any cars in that area. “Wow, this _is_ secluded,” she comments.

“I know,” Chloe says grinning. They finally find where Jesse parked his car and park right next to it. “You got the blankets?” 

Beca nods and grabs them from the back seat. They exit the car and try to find where Jesse was but it didn’t take too long. The theater rope was a dead giveaway. “You roped off the area? You loser.”

Jesse just grins when he sees them. “Ladies! Welcome to the best spot in the park.” 

Beca takes in his set up and had to admit, it was pretty cool. He had brought his own lounge chair and a small foldable table where he had set up drinks and some snacks. 

“You guys can set up right here.” He points to a spot near a very large tree that blocked them from view but still can see the screen. 

“Oh, this is perfect,” Chloe says. She takes the blankets from Beca and starts laying them by the tree. 

“I also managed to grab a few of these before they were all sold out.” Jesse reaches under his lounge chair and pulls out four identical looking fedoras. 

“Oh my god, yes!” Chloe says excitedly and takes one from him. “I didn’t know they were selling these.” She puts it on her head and gives Beca a wink. Beca finds it hard to breathe with how incredibly hot Chloe looked in a silly Indiana Jones hat. Chloe takes another hat from Jesse and then plops it down on Beca’s head as well.

“Chloe,” she whines and tries to take it off.

“No, you gotta leave it on. Please?” She gives Beca her best puppy dog eyes and Beca suddenly can’t say no.

“I got one for Benji too,” Jesse says and puts his own on.

“Great, now we’re all just matching nerds.” Beca goes to try to take hers off again but stops when Chloe gives her a look.

“Bec, everyone here is wearing them.”

Beca looks around the park and sees maybe five other people wearing it. 

“Alright,” Jesse says while clapping his hands together. “I got a few snacks here and some drinks. Only thing I don’t have is popcorn and candy. We can get real food too.” 

“I'll go get us some popcorn and candy,” Beca volunteers. “So you guys don’t miss the first few minutes of the movie you’ve seen a hundred times before.” 

Chloe tugs down on the brim of her hat. “Be nice.”

“Thanks, dude,” Jesse says as he and Chloe both reach into their pockets to pull out some money.

“Guys please,” Beca says, stopping them and pulls out a credit card from her back pocket. “It’s on Warren.” 

Chloe snorts and goes back to setting up the blankets. “Don’t forget to get-”

“Your gross Whoppers, I know. Large popcorn for you Jesse?”

“Yeah, and gummy bears if they got any.”

Beca tips her hat at them before walking off to the nearest concession stand. She takes off her hat as she does and makes a mental note to put it back on before she returns. The line, to no one’s surprise, was really long and Beca takes her spot behind the last person.

“Beca Mitchell seeing a movie? Do my eyes deceive me?”

Beca rolls her eyes and turns around to find Stacie walking towards her. She was also wearing a fedora and what looked like a whip attached to her waist. _Good god,_ Beca thought.

“Sup, Stace? Hot date?” She raises her eyebrows at the whip and upon closer inspection, it was in fact a prop.

Stacie laughs and stands next to her. Their height difference was ridiculous especially since Stacie was also wearing heeled boots. “Nah, it’s me and a few of the girls. Cynthia Rose, Flo, Jessica, and Ashley. No boys tonight.” She puts her arm around Beca’s shoulder and practically uses her as an armrest. “I take it you’re here with Jesse?”

“Yup,” she pauses. “And Chloe.”

Stacie’s eyes widens at that. “Really? I heard you guys were friends again.”

Beca whips her head up at her. “You heard what?”

Stacie rolls her eyes. “Beca, please, you guys went from being besties to ignoring each other for three years and now you’re all chummy again. You don’t think people would notice?”

Beca bites her lip, panic rising in her. Who the hell were these people who were noticing anything she was doing? Wasn’t she just a nonentity in the hellscape that was high school?

“Why are people paying attention to anything I'm doing?”

Stacie gives her a strained smile. “No offense Beca, they’re not really paying attention to _you_. They’re paying attention to Chloe.”

_Oh._ “Right, that makes sense,” Beca says with her own strained smile. 

“You okay, Beca?” Stacie tilts her head at her. 

“Yeah, I’m good. Just not looking forward to 6 hours of this.” She starts fiddling with her hat.

“We have booze at our site if you get bored,” Stacie says winking. “We put them in water bottles.”

“Dude,” Beca says in a harsh whisper. “There are actual cops around so be careful. And please tell me you have a DD?”

Stacie laughs and pinches Beca’s cheek. “Yes, _dad_ , we have a DD. Your concern is cute.”

Beca rubs at her cheek and glares. “Shut up.”

The movie was ten minutes in when Beca finally returns to their site. She managed to stack the two large popcorns in one hand and carries the candies in her other with minimal spillage. She hands Jesse his popcorn and gummy bears and goes to where Chloe was by the tree. She set up the blankets very nicely and it looked super comfortable. Except there wasn’t really any place for Beca to sit on any of the blankets.

“Um, where am I sitting?” Beca asks, handing Chloe the food.

Chloe grins and lifts the blanket that was draped over her lap. Her legs were spread and she pats her lap. “Here.”

Beca blushes and looks around. There really wasn’t anyone around besides Jesse and the way they were positioned, he would have a really bad angle of them. Not to mention he was too busy paying attention to the movie anyways. The sun was still out but was slowly setting. It was going to get dark soon and would give them even more privacy. Beca bites her lip and finally situates herself between Chloe’s legs.

Chloe’s arms automatically wrap around her waist and her hands rest on her stomach and Beca leans back against her chest. Chloe drapes the blanket back over them and hooks her chin on Beca’s shoulder.

“Comfy?” 

Beca nods and moves to be a little more comfortable, very highly aware she was very much between Chloe’s legs. Chloe felt so warm against her back. “This is nice,” Beca whispers and grabs the popcorn.

“Hmm, it is,” Chloe agrees and nips lightly on Beca’s ear right by her piercing, causing Beca to jump a little. “Did I ever tell you how much I love these earrings?”

Beca smiles and tilts her head so Chloe had better access. “Maybe. Almost as much as I like when you wear your glasses.” She blushes at her admission but she feels Chloe smile against her.

“That is very much noted then. Damn, I knew I should’ve worn them tonight.” Beca laughs and leans further into Chloe. She could really get used to this. 

The movie plays on and Beca doesn’t pay the slightest bit of attention. She does enjoy Chloe’s surprised gasps and laughs during certain scenes as if she’s never seen the movie before. They were half way through the first movie and the sun has gone completely down, when Chloe’s hands start to wander under the blankets and move against her shirt. She lifts the tank top Beca was wearing under her plaid shirt and runs her fingers against her stomach. Beca feels her muscles twitch under Chloe’s touch.

“Is this okay?” Chloe whispers.

Beca nods and moves against Chloe. She hears a soft gasp from Chloe when she does so and her entire body flushes. Chloe continues to run fingers along her stomach and Beca closes her eyes at the sensation. She felt very hot despite the temperature dropping around them. Beca’s not quite sure what to do with her own hands so she moves them on top of Chloe’s under her shirt and pushes them up. She needed to feel Chloe.

Chloe takes the hint and starts moving her hand further up Beca’s stomach and stops right under the cup of her bra. Beca’s heart beats faster and she’s sure Chloe can feel it beneath her hand. She moves again and deliberately rubs against Chloe this time. 

“Bec,” she gasps and her one hand comes to hold Beca’s hip to keep her still. Beca grins, a little pride blooms in her knowing she’s working Chloe up. It’s short lived when she feels Chloe’s hand move her bra up, exposing her breast to Chloe’s very nimble fingers. Beca’s gasp is almost audible when Chloe starts to thumb her nipple.

“Chloe,” she chokes out as quietly as she can. Chloe’s still holding her hip and she’s never quite appreciated her strength and dexterity until this moment.

Chloe kisses the side of her neck. “Do you want me to stop?” She stills her fingers but Beca shakes her head fast.

“No, no,” Beca stammers out. God, it felt good. She was so turned on and the fact they were doing this in public with one of her friends sitting not even six feet from them turned her on even more. Maybe Beca _was_ a little into exhibition.

“You feel so good, Bec,” Chloe whispers and continues to rub her nipple. She finally lets go of her hip and uses that hand to thumb her other nipple.

“Fuck.” This time Beca was able to move. She grounds herself by holding onto Chloe’s thighs. 

‘Can you move against me, Bec?” Chloe’s voice is strained and she continues to pinch and rub at her breasts.

Beca starts to move, rubbing her ass against Chloe’s center. She tries to be as subtle as possible. “Like that?” She hears Chloe quietly moan.

“Yes, Beca, just like that, fuck.”

The nagging voice in Beca’s head she heard earlier that day has suddenly gone quiet and was replaced by the noises Chloe was making behind her. She rubs harder and Chloe’s hands leave her breasts and grab onto her hips slowing her down. 

“Not here, Bec,” Chloe says, a little breathless. Beca grins, but stops moving. 

“Sorry,” she apologizes quietly. She takes Chloe’s hands and puts them back on her stomach (above her shirt).

Chloe kisses her neck again and smiles against it. “No you’re not.”

Beca chuckles. “No, I’m not but that was very fun.” As much as Beca wanted to continue what they were doing, she really didn’t want the first time she got Chloe off to be at the park, outside with Indiana Jones playing in the background. Chloe deserved soft music and candlelight and a bed. 

“I really want to kiss you right now.”

“Why don’t we go to the ‘bathroom’ then?” Beca suggests with a smirk. Chloe’s eyes light up and she nudges at her to get up. “We’re going to go to the bathroom real quick,” Beca whispers to Jesse as she gets up, holding Chloe’s hand. Jesse snorts and nods his head but continues to watch the movie. Beca knows she’s not fooling anyone. 

They obviously don’t go to the bathroom but rather back to Chloe’s car which is now shrouded in the darkness. When Chloe opens the backdoor and pushes her onto the backseat to climb on top of her, Beca starts to realize that maybe the movies weren’t so bad. Chloe’s tongue in her mouth and hand under shirt may also have to do with it as well. 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who is still reading this fic. I'm sorry it's dragging. 😬
> 
> TW: This chapter contains a homophobic slur

At some point, Beca knows she needs oxygen but that would require her to stop kissing Chloe. And honestly, that was the last thing she wanted to do, especially with how Chloe was using her mouth and tongue. But dying while kissing Chloe seemed like the best way to go so Beca continues to deprive herself of the air she desperately needs. 

Chloe kisses her with vigor and Beca doesn’t even bother masking her moans and whimpers. Every now and then Chloe would nip or tug at her lip and Beca’s moans get louder. So Chloe does it more. Beca’s hands find their way under Chloe’s sweater to scratch at her back while Chloe grinds her hips against her. The backseat wasn’t the most spacious or comfortable but their legs are intertwined while they make out. Beca shortly finds out that when she scratches harder on Chloe’s back, Chloe moves her knee up into Beca’s center and the noise she makes from the back of her throat almost makes Beca come. Almost.

Eventually the need to breathe wins out and Beca turns her head to gasp a lungful of air. She hears and feels Chloe laugh against her but doesn’t stop kissing her. She focuses her lips and teeth on Beca’s neck (not the first time since they got into the car) and then to her ears where she nips along the earrings she loves so much. Beca closes her eyes at the sensation.

“Chloe,” she breathes out and scratches again on Chloe’s back and another moan escapes Chloe’s lips.

Chloe finally pulls back to hover over her. It’s completely unfair how ethereal Chloe looks at the very moment. Her hair curtains her face and the very dim light coming from the movie screen filters through the car windows bathing Chloe like some kind of halo.

“Too much?” She’s out of breath and it turns Beca on even more.

“Never, I just don’t want to,” Beca stops and blushes. “You know, in the backseat of your car.” She reaches up to brush Chloe’s hair behind her ear.

Chloe just smiles down at her and lightly kisses her. “Okay.” She sits up and pulls Beca with her so they’re sitting properly in the backseat. “Cuddle time?”

Beca laughs but agrees and throws her arm across Chloe’s stomach. Chloe puts her arm around her shoulders and pulls her closer so Beca can rest her head against Chloe’s chest. They sit in a comfortable silence while they both try to cool off. Beca hadn’t realized just how fast her heart was beating until it started to slow down. She idley starts moving her hand against Chloe’s stomach and then under her sweater. She hears Chloe hum as she does it.

“Wow,” Beca says suddenly as she continues to rub her hand against Chloe’s stomach.

“What?”

Beca looks up at Chloe with a grin. “You’re like, really fit.”

Chloe bursts out laughing. “Thanks?”

“Like I can count your abs,” Beca continues and starts tracing Chloe’s stomach with her fingers. Chloe jumps a little.

“Babe, that tickles.”

“You’re so hot,” Beca says in awe. She lifts Chloe’s sweater up a little and even in the dim light, she can see Chloe’s abs. “I’m dating the hottest cheerleader ever.”

Chloe laughs more and takes a hold of Beca’s hand that was still tracing her abs. “You’re ridiculous.”

Beca grins and climbs on top of Chloe to straddle her. “And you’re ridiculously hot. Did you know that?” 

Chloe grins back at her and puts her hands on Beca’s waist. “You’re not so bad yourself, Mitchell. We’re pretty hot together.” She takes both of Beca’s hands and holds them before bringing them up to her lips to kiss them.

The gesture makes Beca melt. “Be my girlfriend?” She blurts out and widens her eyes in shock. Beca hadn’t meant for that to come out. The “taking this whole thing slow” train has completely left. “I mean-”

“Yes,” Chloe says immediately. “I’m yours. Always.” She leans up to kiss her. “But best friends first and always okay?”

Beca nods in complete agreement. “Always.”

“God, you’re cute.”

Beca rolls her eyes. “Stop,” she whines. 

“There’s no one here, weirdo,’” Chloe says through laughs. “But we should probably go, I have no idea how long we’ve been gone.” 

Beca reaches for what she thinks is her phone that fell on the seat but it’s actually Chloe’s. The lock screen lights up and Beca's face breaks into the widest smile when she sees the selfie Chloe took of them. “You’re so corny!”

“You’re smiling though,” Chloe counters and takes her phone. “And shit, we’ve been gone for like 45 minutes. The second movie probably already started, we should head back.” 

Beca sighs, a little disappointed but she knew they should head back. She laughs a little when she extracts herself for Chloe and notices the windows were fogged up. She nearly gives herself a heart attack when she thought the shadow outside was a person but turned out to be a tree. 

They actually do go to the bathroom before heading back to the site so they can freshen up. Beca can only assume she looked like a complete mess. Thankfully the bathrooms at the park were actually clean and well lit (and empty). She was scared they would look like rest stop bathrooms where it was dark and dingy and definitely had a serial killer lurking in them. Maybe Chloe was right and Beca was watching too much Criminal Minds.

Beca leaves the stall first and goes to wash her hands and looks at herself in the mirror. Her hair was completely messed up and her lips were completely devoid of the gloss she had put on earlier and very swollen. Her face, once again, resembled a tomato. 

“Beca!”

Beca jumps at the sudden outburst of her name and sees Stacie stumble into the bathroom. Her face too was flushed but probably had to do with whatever was in the water bottle she was currently drinking from.

“You okay there?” She says with amusement and holds out her hands as Stacie trips over herself walking to Beca.

“Yes, just a little buzzed,” she slurs and holds up her thumb and index finger close together. Stacie grins and her eyes fall to Beca’s collar. “Don’t tell me Jesse gave you _that._ ”

Beca furrows her eyebrows in confusion. “Huh?”

Stacie giggles and grabs Beca by the shoulders to turn her towards the mirror again. “That!” She exclaims and tugs at Beca’s collar to expose her neck a little. 

Beca’s eyes widen when she sees the start of (several) hickeys forming on her very fair skin. If it was possible, Beca turns even redder. Chloe chooses that moment to exit her stall and her eyes light up when she sees Stacie.

“Stacie!” She exclaims and then frowns when Stacie turns towards her and stumbles again. “Have you been drinking?” She makes her way to the sinks and starts to wash her hands while looking at Stacie through the mirror while Beca tries to cover up her neck as subtly as possible. “Please tell me you’re at least drinking water?

Stacie rolls her eyes and takes another swig of the water bottle she was holding. “Yes, _mom,_ I switched to water already.” She holds the bottle to Chloe’s face. “See?”

Chloe takes the bottle from her and takes a small sip. “Just water,” she affirms and hands it back to her. Stacie giggles again but then squints her eyes at Chloe like she just noticed something. Beca has now popped the collar of her shirt. 

Stacie looks between them curiously and Chloe looks back at her concerned. 

“Are you okay, Stace?”

“Oh my god!” Stacie exclaims and it makes Beca cringe and Chloe jump. “You!” She points at Beca and then to Chloe. “And you!”

Chloe raises her eyebrows, clearly confused. “Stacie, I think you’ve had too much to drink.”

“Ugh, shut up, no I didn’t.” She suddenly reaches out and folds Beca’s collar back down.

“Stacie!” Beca pulls away and automatically hides behind Chloe.

“You gave her that! Your lips are completely swollen and both your eyes are dilated!” Stacie practically yells at Chloe while pointing to Beca’s neck. 

Chloe’s eyes widen when she sees the hickeys and the color drains from her face. “Uhhh.”

“The two of you!” Stacie’s volume makes them both wince and they go to shush her.

“Stacie, can you please keep your voice down?” Chloe says a little frantically and Beca looks under the stalls to see if anyone was in any of them. She doesn’t see any feet and she breathes a small sigh of relief. As far as she knew, they were the only three in the bathroom.

“I’m sorry,” Stacie says in an exaggerated whisper. “I’m just a little surprised.” She grins at them dumbly. “You two are cute.” She goes to hug them both but Beca lightly pushes her away. She feels the small bit of comfort when Chloe puts her hand on the small of Beca’s back. 

”Stacie, can you please not say anything to anyone?” Beca’s voice is distressed and she feels panic rising in her. Stacie was the gossip queen of the junior class. She knew everything about everyone. The last thing Beca needed was this to go around school.

Stacie mimes zipping her lips. “I’m a vault, I promise.”

“Thanks,” Chloe says while rubbing Beca’s back. “We’re not ready for people to know and not to mention people are assholes. 

“Completely understood, I’d never betray your guys’ trust. Happy for you two idiots.” Stacie goes to go hug them again Beca pretty much suffocates in her breasts. “Just don’t ask me to be a bridesmaid at your wedding. That shit is expensive.” She messily kisses Beca on the cheek before finally entering a stall.

Chloe can’t help but laugh as Beca wipes at her cheek. Stacie was wearing bright red lipstick and is now smeared all over her face. “Are you worried?” Beca whispers to Chloe.

“Nah, Stacie is one of the most loyal people. She’d never tell.” She reaches over and wipes the remaining lipstick off Beca’s cheek. Chloe’s fingers linger before moving down to her neck where she traces the hickeys. “Looks like I got a little carried away.” Chloe looks very proud of herself as she continues to touch Beca’s neck.

“I like them,” Beca says grinning. “I like being yours.”

Chloe’s eyes have a glint in them. “Well, matchy matchy,” she says before lifting her sweater up a little and turns around so Beca can see her back.

Beca’s eyes widen when she sees very distinct red nail marks up and down Chloe’s very toned back. “Oh my god, Chloe, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Chloe says immediately and drops her sweater. “It’s so hot,” she says in a low whisper and Beca gulps. 

“Hey ladies,” Stacie says from the stall and Beca jumps again. For a half a second she forgot Stacie was still in the bathroom with them. “If you want some drinks, we still have some at our site.”

“No thanks, Stace,” Chloe says and winks at Beca. “I’m driving precious cargo home.”

“Awwwww.”

Beca shakes her head at Stacie’s drunkenness. “We’re leaving, now. Sober up, please.”

“Yes, dad!”

Chloe loops her arm through Beca’s as they exit the bathroom and make their way back to their site. They’ve been gone for nearly an hour now and she knows Jesse is going to tease her about this forever. As far as Friday nights go, this was one of the best Beca has had in a while and it completely had to do with Chloe. Beca has a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact that in such a short time, she went from being angry and yearning for Chloe to being her girlfriend and making out in the backseat of her car. If someone had told her three years ago this is where she’d be, she would’ve punched them in the face. For the first time in a very long time, Beca was happy.

“You have a goofy grin, what are you thinking about?” Chloe says as she tugs them along to the concession stand to get real food.

Beca doesn’t stop smiling. “You.”

Chloe squeezes her hand. “And I’m the corny one?”

“I’m just really happy right now.”

“I’m happy too.” Chloe looks around and quickly kisses Beca on the cheek. “And I’m also really hungry so we should get some food.”

They get themselves some food before finally returning and gives Jesse a burger and fries. He doesn’t say anything to them but his raised eyebrows and knowing look makes Beca give him a warning glare. Beca knows she’s got no leg to stand on since they’ve practically missed half of the second movie but she will smash that burger in his face if need be. 

The rest of the night passes by pretty quickly and it was the first movie night where Beca didn’t fall asleep. Even though they stuck mostly to cuddling for the remainder of the films, the occasional groping did happen and at one point Chloe had to physically restrain Beca’s hands with the warning of “behave” was whispered in her ear. Shivers ran up and down Beca’s body at her tone. 

When the credits finally rolled after the last movie, Beca was ready to take a cold shower. Her entire body felt like it was on fire and if she dumped cold water on herself, she is sure she’d start steaming. She is also sure her underwear is completely ruined.

“Well that was fun,” Jesse says and he starts packing up his things. “Did you girls have _fun?_ ” He grins at Beca and she throws an empty Coke bottle at him. He catches it mid air.

“We should definitely do that again,” Chloe says and puts on her Indiana Jones hat while folding the blankets. She winks at Beca. “Did you have fun, Bec?” She takes Beca’s discarded hat and plops it on her head again.

“The funnest,” Beca deadpans but blushes when Chloe looks at her from under the brim of the hat. The dumb fedora was really doing something to Beca. “We should get going though. It’ll probably take forever to get out of here.” 

They quickly clean up their area and Chloe makes sure all their trash is in the actual trash cans and their recyclables in the right bin before heading to their cars. The drive home is quiet with only music playing softly from Chloe’s phone on in the background. Beca doesn’t argue with the music choice because Chloe was playing one of her mixes. She dozes off five minutes into the drive, holding Chloe’s hand over the console. It’s a little past midnight when Chloe pulls up to Beca’s driveway and Beca sees that the light in the living room was still on. She knew her mom was waiting up for them.

“So,” Beca starts when Chloe puts the car in park. “My mom says you can spend the night,” she says suggestively and runs her fingers up Chloe’s arm.

Chloe smiles and grabs a hold of her hand. “As much as I would love to spend the night, I have my competition tomorrow and I need all the rest I can get. And I very much doubt we’ll be doing a lot of sleeping if I spend the night.” She grins at her and kisses her hand.

“Oh right,” Beca says, a little disappointed. She had completely forgotten about Chloe’s competition. “So I take it you’ll be gone most of the day?” She tries not to pout but she couldn’t help it.

“Yeah, it takes an hour to get there so we’re meeting at the school at 9 so the bus can drive us there. We go on around 11,” Chloe explains. “There’s a whole bunch of schools competing and we’re like third on the time slot.” 

“That sounds super boring,” Beca comments.

Chloe laughs and then shrugs. “I know, but you gotta do what you gotta do.”

“I know,” Beca says quietly. “I just wish it didn’t take up so much of your time.”

“Beca,” Chloe sighs. “You know I have to do this.”

“I’m sorry,” Beca says immediately. She really didn’t want to start another argument about cheerleading again. “I know it’s important so I’m going to go now so I don’t spend the rest of the night in my driveway kissing you.” She grins and leans over to kiss Chloe on the lips. “Good luck tomorrow, Chlo.”

“Thanks, Bec, sweet dreams.

It takes a few more kisses before Beca finally leaves the car and heads into her house. Her mom was watching TV when she walked in. 

“Had a good night, sweetie?” Donna asks from the couch.

“It was alright,” Beca says nonchalantly. “You think I can borrow the car tomorrow?”

Donna looks up from the TV and narrows her eyes. “Where are you going?”

Beca gives her the widest of smiles and puts on an innocent face. “Well, I thought of surprising Chloe at her competition tomorrow,” she pauses. “And it’s like an hour away so public transportation is out of the question and I know Jesse is going to say no,” she tacks on quickly.

“Don’t those usually take all day? You want to borrow the car for an entire day?” Her mom turns off the TV and crosses her arms across her chest. “What if I had plans tomorrow?”

“Do you have plans tomorrow?” Beca counters.

Donna ignores that. “I’m not comfortable with you taking the car and driving an hour out and spending an entire day there.”

“Mom,” she whines. “It’s not like I do this a lot. I barely go out and I really want to support Chloe. I mean, we’re just rebuilding our relationship.” Beca was not above begging.

Her mom sighs and Beca’s hope rises. “Fine, but you call me when you get there and you fill up the tank with your own money, not your dad’s credit card, got it?”

Beca smiles and goes over to hug her mom. “Thanks, mom! You’re the best!”

“Uh huh, sure, now go to bed.”

Beca practically skips up the stairs. She takes a quick, colder than normal, shower and hops into bed with a big smile on her face. There’s already a text message from Chloe when she checks her phone one last time before falling asleep.

**Chloe:**

_I cant get over how good you felt beneath me and the sounds you made when i touched you. I cant wait to get you alone so i can show you exactly what you do to me. I cant wait to feel your lips on my bare skin and feel you tremble beneath mine. you have no idea how much i want to hear you scream my name._

“Jesus fucking christ.” Beca swallows and tries to type out a response. That shower was definitely not cold enough.

 **Beca:** **  
**_I think youre going to kill me chloe beale._

 **Chloe:** **  
****😘** Sweet dreams bec.

\---

The drive to the competition was long and boring and Beca kept having to tell herself that she was doing this for Chloe. Spending hours inside some hot arena watching cheerleading was something Beca thought she’d never have to do but here she was, sitting in the audience with hundreds of other people. Beca did have to admit, the athleticism that cheerleaders had was something to admire. They were basically gymnasts but with poms poms and corny cheers but it took a whole lot of talent to do the things these people were doing.

When The Barden Knights finally come on to the mat, Beca sits up and immediately tries to find Chloe. She finds her positioned near the back right and Beca frowns. Clearly Alice didn’t think she deserved a spot in front and center and it made Beca hate her that much more. She watches Chloe the entire routine and is completely taken aback with how amazingly talented her girlfriend was. She knew Chloe has always been athletic but she had never seen her in this type of setting. The most she saw her as a cheerleader was during pep rallies at school but that barely showed her actual skills as an athlete. Beca was definitely biased but the way Chloe’s body moved with the choreography and music was absolutely flawless. She actually gasps when Chloe does a backflip during the routine. 

The cheerleading uniforms also accentuated Chloe’s strong thighs and biceps and Beca has to stop herself from physically drooling at her girlfriend’s very fit body. Beca was thankful that Chloe wasn’t one of the people that got thrown up in the air like rag dolls because she didn’t trust any of those cheerleaders to catch her. She knows it’s irrational thinking but she wouldn’t put it past some of them to “accidentally” drop Chloe.

When the routine ends, Beca gets to her feet and starts clapping and cheering loudly even though she knows Chloe has no idea she’s there. Beca felt so proud that she was tempted to go straight to her and tell her how much so but she knew she had to wait until everyone had competed. She waits not so patiently for the rest of the teams to do their routines and when they finally bring everyone out to announce who will advance, Beca finds herself holding her breath as well.

The Barden Knights end up advancing and Beca smiles as she watches Chloe jump up and down hugging Aubrey in celebration. She notices Alice just smiles like she’s too good to show any excitement and Beca rolls her eyes. Beca makes her way down to the floor and takes a deep breath as she approaches the team. 

“Chloe!” She calls out as loud as she can over the cheers of celebration. Chloe turns around to the sound of her name and Beca sees her entire face lights up when she sees her.

“Beca!” She quickly breaks from her team and runs to Beca, pulling her in a tight hug. “You’re here! Oh my god, you’re here!” 

Beca is being swayed around in Chloe’s arms and she can’t stop smiling. Seeing Chloe this happy made her feel like she was floating. When they finally pull apart, Chloe is holding tightly to her arm, squeezing her hands up and down like she can’t quite believe Beca was there.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” 

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Beca explains. “Congrats by the way.”

Chloe leans in like she’s about to kiss her but stops herself last moment. “God, I want to kiss you right now,” she says instead in a low voice.

“Later,” Beca says grinning. “Do you have to do something right now with your team or can I take you out for a celebratory meal?”

“You can take her now actually.”

Beca feels like ice water was dumped over her head at the sound of Alice’s cold voice. Chloe turns around and sees the entire team standing right behind them with Alice in the middle. Her eyes are cold and she has a smug smile. The rest of the team stands behind her in their usual obedient stance. Aubrey is the only one looking very nervous.

“So it is true,” Alice says while looking between them. Chloe was still holding onto Beca’s arm and she reluctantly lets it go. 

“What the hell are you talking about, Alice?” Beca says, trying to sound annoyed even though panic is coursing through her.

Alice glares at her. “Liz told me she went to the Indiana Jones marathon last night.” Beca feels the color drain from her face and sees Chloe go rigid beside her. “She said she thought she saw Chloe and some random girl go into the back seat of her car.” Alice puts her finger to her chin in an exaggerated way. “Now, who could have that been?”

“Stop it,” Beca hisses and gets right into Alice’s face. “Don’t you fucking dare.” Beca has always been small and the wind could definitely blow her over but she will kill Alice Waltham that very moment if she needs to.

Alice smirks. “Don’t worry, Mitchell, I don’t give a shit about your depravity.” She turns to her attention back to Chloe. “But you, Chloe Beale, you’re off the squad.”

“What?!” Chloe and Beca say at the same time. Beca thinks she hears the rest of the team gasp. “Alice, I need to be on the team to qualify for scholarships. You can’t just kick me out for no reason.” Chloe pleads with her eyes and looks to Aubrey for back up. 

“Oh sweetie, but I can,” Alice says in a maliciously saccharine voice. “As captain, I can kick anyone off the team if I feel like they don’t hold up to the values of a Barden Knights cheerleader.” She steps into Chloe’s personal space so the rest of the squad can’t hear her. “And we don’t allow dykes on our team.”

Beca feels herself about to lunge at Alice as soon as that word leaves her mouth but Chloe is quick to grab her arm again. She looks at Chloe incredulously but all Chloe does is shake her head as her eyes fill with tears. 

Alice still has that smirk on her face as she steps back. “Don’t forget to dry clean your uniform before you turn it in.” She turns around and walks back to the locker rooms. “Girls!” The rest of the team follow her obediently and Aubrey looks at Chloe with sorrowful eyes. “Posen! Do you want to join your friend?” Alice glares at her.

“I’m sorry, Chloe,” is all Aubrey says before following the team back to the lockers.

Beca watches as Chloe stares after them, completely at loss of what to say to her.

“Chloe-”

“Beca, can you just take me home?”

Beca can only nod and follows Chloe out the door.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter that I'm not too fond of but I hope you still enjoy.

Beca watches as Chloe walks out of the building in a daze and doesn’t even seem fazed when she bumps into people. She tries to keep up with her when they finally reach the parking lot when Chloe stops abruptly that Beca runs into her. Chloe doesn’t even budge.

“Chlo?” Beca looks at her concerned as they stand in the middle of the parking lot.

“I forgot all my stuff,” Chloe says in an almost robotic voice and turns around to head back to the building.

Beca reaches out to stop her. “I’ll get it, why don’t you go wait in the car?” She takes her car keys out of her pocket and hands them to Chloe. “My mom’s car is just right over there.” She points just over Chloe’s shoulder but she doesn’t pay attention.

“Only teams can go into the locker room,” Chloe says and tries to head back again. Her eyes are unfocused and are filled with unshed tears.

“Chloe, I got it,” Beca says as gently as possible and tries to guide her to the car. “I’ll say I’m the coach’s assistant or something. I have my student ID.”

“Okay,” Chloe says in that same monotone voice and then turns around to walk to the car. Beca sighs as she watches Chloe get into the passenger seat. She marches back into the building which proved to be difficult since everyone was leaving at the same time. She sees the Barden Knights making their way to the side exit where the school buses were and spots Aubrey at the end carrying two large gym bags. One of which she knows is Chloe’s if the Spider-Man patch on it wasn’t a dead give away. 

“Give me the bag,” Beca says coldly when she approaches Aubrey.

Aubrey looks at her like a deer caught in the headlights. It would’ve looked comical on any other day but all Beca wanted to do was hit her. 

“Is Chloe okay?” 

Beca scoffs and rolls her eyes. “What the hell do you think? Way to stand up for your friend, Aubrey.” She doesn’t even wait for Aubrey to give her the bag but rather just grabs it from her.

“You have no idea what it's like, Beca,” Aubrey pleads. She starts to look back and forth between Beca and the rest of the team already leaving the building. Beca suspects she’s scared they’d leave without her. A part of her wishes they will. 

“I literally do not care about your dumb stupid cheerleader hiearchery bulshit. Alice isn’t a fucking god.” Beca slings the bag over her shoulder and tries not to show how much it weighed her down. She has no idea what Chloe packs in there but her weak noodle arms were definitely struggling. “You just stood there. Do you have any idea what this means for Chloe?”

“Of course I do!” Aubrey yells but quickly calms down. “Alice makes the rules okay? We can’t cross her or we’re off the team too.”

Beca glares at her. “That’s bullshit and you know it. You mean to tell me that Coach Eisley just lets her bully everyone? That no one tells her that Alice is a vapid human being?”

Aubrey clenches her jaw and narrows her eyes and Beca finally sees the cheerleader Aubrey always presents herself as in school. “Look, Beca,” she says with venom. “You may not care about the unspoken high school politics but Alice can ruin people with one word. This isn’t some after school program. You tell on anyone here and your entire social life is ruined. We can’t be all as apathetic as you.” Aubrey takes a deep breath and Beca just shakes her head.

“You’re pathetic, you know that? You don’t deserve Chloe’s friendship.”

Aubrey takes a step back and crosses her arms across her chest. They stare at each other for a few moments before Aubrey speaks again. “Yeah? And where the hell were you the last three years?”

Beca tries to keep her face as passive as she can and tries to pretend the words don’t affect her. “Go back to your master, Aubrey. Sure she has a bone for you for being so loyal.” She doesn’t wait for a reply and leaves the building through the main entrance. 

Beca know the situations are completely different but Aubrey taking that cheap shot made her feel like absolute shit. Just thinking of how Chloe had to deal with Alice for three years and how she thought Chloe chose cheerleading over her felt like a crushing weight on her chest. 

She puts Chloe’s bag in the backseat of her car and watches Chloe for a little bit while she stares out the window as the team boarded the bus back to school. Alice and Coach Eisley were off to the side talking privately no doubt talking about why Chloe wasn’t on the bus as well. Beca wonders what lie she tells the coach. 

“Chloe,” Beca says when she gets in the driver’s side. Chloe continues to stare at the bus. “Chloe” she repeats firmly. “You have to tell your coach what happened.”

Chloe turns her head and stares at Beca with a vacant expression. Remnants of tears dried on her face and her eyes were red. “I can’t.”

Beca tries not to get annoyed but it was proving hard. “What do you mean you can’t? What Alice did was against school rules, hell it’s against the law.”

Chloes runs her hand through her hair and undoes her ponytail. “Beca,” she says tiredly. “Do you know what will happen if I tell?”

Beca was starting to get really sick of this so-called high school politics. “Yeah, Alice will get expelled for being a homophobic bitch and you get back on the team.”

Chloe rubs her hand across her face in frustration and sadness. “No, Beca, you don’t think Alice won’t retaliate? She’ll out me, Beca.” The words make Beca’s heart stop. “She’ll out _us_.” She wipes away another errant tear. “And I told you I won’t let anything bad happen to you or us so no I can’t tell. I don’t care what will happen to me or my so-called reputation but I will not let anyone hurt you because of me.” She takes a deep breath and goes back to staring out the window. The bus was finally leaving the parking lot. 

Beca stares at the side of Chloe’s face not knowing what to say. She was so angry at Alice she didn’t even consider the possibility of being outed to the entire school. Beca was already not the most popular but Chloe was loved by everyone because she was one of the only nice cheerleaders on the squad. Chloe risking future scholarship prospects to protect her made Beca love her that much more. And also want to kill Alice that much more. 

“Chloe, this is your future we’re talking about.” She reaches out to hold her hand and Chloe squeezes back tightly. “I can handle what people throw at me,” she lies. Was she ready for the slew of harassment that will come? No, but Beca wasn’t going to let Chloe throw her future away because of one homophobic cheerleader who wasn’t even that good. 

“I can’t, Beca,” Chloe says, turning back to her. “I’ll work harder for the rest of the year to get my grade point average up and apply for academic scholarships. I’ll get another job as a server at my mom’s restaurant. I’ll figure it out.”

Beca bites her lip. “No, Chloe, I’m going to fix this.” She says it with determination that it draws the smallest of smiles from Chloe.

“Can we just go home?”

Beca nods and finally starts the car. She had no idea how she was going to fix this but she was going to try. Alice was not going to get away with kicking Chloe off the team and she definitely was not going to out them to the entire school. She just needed some time to think and possibly get some reinforcements. 

The drive home was quiet but it makes Beca feel better that Chloe reached over a few times to hold her hand. She didn’t say much and Beca figures her mind was running with a million of thoughts. When she finally pulls up into Chloe’s driveway, Chloe lets out a quiet sigh.

“I don’t know what to tell my parents,” she says as she stares at the front door. “They were supposed to come today but mom had to work last minute and dad can’t drive by himself.” She turns to Beca with a sad smile. “I guess it’s better they missed it.”

“Do you want me to go in with you?”

Chloe shakes her head. “No, I need to do this on my own.”

Beca nods, understanding. “Okay, I’ll talk to you later?”

“Of course.” Chloe leans over and gives Beca a light kiss. “Thank you for coming today.”

“You were awesome by the way. I think I left my jaw back there.” Chloe laughs. “You’re incredibly talented.”

“Thank you.” She kisses her again and runs her thumb across Beca’s bottom lip. “For everything really. I’m so glad you’re back in my life.”

Beca smiles and takes Chloe’s hand to kiss her palm. “I promise I’ll fix this, Chlo.”

Chloe gives her that same sad smile “Bec, you can’t always be my superhero, you know?”

“I’m gonna damn well try. Even if it’s just putting dead fish in Alice’s locker.” That earns another laugh. 

“Bye, Bec.” With a final kiss, Chloe exits the car and grabs her bag from the back. Beca waits until she’s inside her house before she drives away and automatically dials a number on her phone.

“What do you want?” Jesse’s wary voice echoes through the bluetooth of the car.

Beca rolls her eyes as she starts circling her block a few times. “Hello to you too, loser.”

“Dude, you never actually call me so I know you want something from me. The only time you ever called was when you got drunk at Donald’s party and you called me using Siri from across the damn room.”

“Okay, fine yes I need something.” She turns on another street in her neighborhood to prolong getting back home. She needs privacy for this phone call and the 6 blocks from Chloe’s house to hers was definitely not long enough. Her mom would be nosy if she just sat in the driveway. “I need you to hack in the Barden High administrative files.”

Jesse guffaws. “You want me to do what? You know that I’m not actually a hacker right?”

“You said the firewall was easy to get through.”

“Yeah, because they blocked Netflix and I found a work around. I can’t actually hack in the school’s private files.” There was a long pause. “Okay, maybe I can but why am I doing this?”

“Because, I need to find some dirt on Alice.” Beca turns on another street and vaguely wonders if her neighbors are watching her circling the entire block.

“Okay? What can you possibly find in there? And why are you doing this?” He asks again.

Beca grits her teeth. “The less questions you ask, the better. I just need to know if she had any disciplinary shit against her.”

“You’re aware that if I get caught, I’m gonna get expelled right?”

“I’ll take the entire fallout if you get caught but I’m asking you as a friend if you can do this for me.” There was another long pause and Beca finally pulls into her driveway. “Jesse?”

“Fine, I’ll let you know if I find something. Just out of curiosity, why now?”

“Because she kicked Chloe off the team and I am really fucking sick of her getting away with treating people like shit.” She turns off the car and runs a hand through her hair.

“Oh,” is all Jesse says. “If I don’t find anything, we can always put dead fish in her locker.”

Beca snorts. “Already thought of that. I gotta go, been sitting in my driveway too long. Thanks, Jess.”

“Bye, Bec.”

Beca presses end on her phone when she sees a text notification from Chloe. It was just a heart emoji and she feels her own heart swell. She replies with the same.

“I’m home!” Beca calls when she gets in her house and heads straight to her room. 

“Beca,” her mom calls in a weirdly tense voice that it makes Beca stop half way up the stairs. “Can you come in here please?”

“Is everything okay?” She asks as she makes her way into the kitchen but stops suddenly at the entrance. Her mom wasn’t alone. 

“Hi, Beca.”

Beca crosses her arms across her chest and replies stiffly. “Dad.” She glances at her mom who looks both tired and annoyed which she doesn’t blame her for. “What are you doing here?”

Warren shrugs his shoulders and puts his hands in his pants pockets. “It’s the weekend, it’s technically my day with you.”

Beca clenches her jaw. “Right, sorry,” she deadpans. 

“Beca,” her mom says exasperated. She sits at the kitchen table taking a sip from a glass. Beca doesn’t have to question that it’s some kind of hard liquor. 

“Listen,” Warren starts and runs a hand through his hair similarly to what she did earlier. “I know you don’t want to spend any time with me but I wanted you to know that grandpa is coming back home.”

Beca widens her eyes at this. “Finally came to your senses?”

Warren sighs. “Bec, I never wanted to put him into a nursing home but he needed help. Help I couldn’t give him at the time.”

“So you thought tearing him away from his home would help?” The last thing Beca needed was an unannounced visit from her dad. She had things to do like figure out a way to get Chloe back on the team without outing them.

“Beca,” he tries again and he sounds so tired. They were all so tired. “He’s home now and I got him a private nurse who will be there daily to take care of his basic needs. I just wanted you to know.”

“A text would have sufficed.” 

“You haven’t answered my last twenty,” he counters. 

“Beca,” her mom says again. “Just try, please?.” She gets up to leave the kitchen and squeezes Beca’s elbow as she passes her.

When it’s just the two of them, Beca has the sudden urge to just leave the room. Leave him there the way he left her and her mom. “Look, dad, I know I’ve missed like all our days together but I’m still so mad at you and I really don’t want to talk so I think it’s best you just leave.”

Warren sighs. “I just wanted to let you know about grandpa, Bec. I know I have no right to ask of your time.”

Beca nods stiffly but was a little surprised her dad didn’t press it further. “Okay, I’ll see you around.” She turns to leave when her dad speaks again.

“Are you doing okay, Beca? How’s school going?”

She grits her teeth. “I’m fine and it’s fine. Goodbye, dad.” 

“How’s Chloe?”

Beca can never stop her heart from skipping a beat whenever her girlfriend is mentioned and apparently it also stops her in her tracks as well. A sudden thought crosses her mind and she quickly turns back around.

“Are you still on the school board?” Beca asks suddenly.

Warren blinks, completely confused. “I was always more of a consultant because of our family’s donation,” he answers and squints his eyes at her. “Why?”

Beca clears her throat and tries to figure out the next thing to say. “So you have somewhat of a say of what happens at school?”

“My word holds some weight,” he says, still confused. “Beca, is there a reason why you’re asking me this? Did something happen at school? Are you in trouble?”

“No,” Beca says quickly and tries to stop the grin spreading on her face. “But it’s good to know the Mitchell name holds some clout.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who has been reading this fic! I appreciate everyone's comments so much. We're nearing the end and wrapping this up. 
> 
> Please suspend your belief with my super convoluted plot in the chapter! 😆

“How did it go with your dad?”

Beca spins her chair around to find her mom leaning against her door. She said her quick goodbyes to Warren about fifteen minutes ago and went to her room to work on some music while she waited for Jesse’s phone call. She was also texting random puppy videos to Chloe to cheer her up. 

“It went,” Beca replies indifferently and turns back around to her computer.

“Is there a reason why you were asking him about being on the school board?” Donna’s voice had an edge to it. Beca had no trouble keeping things from her dad but with her mom, it was a lot more difficult. “He told me you were asking him. Is something going on at school, Beca?”

Beca turns back around and tries her best poker face. “No, mom, I was just making small talk.”

Donna narrows her eyes and steps fully into her room. “Beca Constance Mitchell,” she starts and Beca winces. Being full named was something she was very used to. “You want to try again?”

Beca sighs. “It’s just good to know that dad has some pull at school, that’s all.”

“Honey, please tell me you’re not going to do something stupid that would warrant your father having to use his ‘connections.’ Am I going to get a call from school saying that you’re on the roof again?”

Beca tries not to laugh at the memory because wow did she get in trouble for that. A bunch of boys in 7th grade thought it’d be funny to steal all the girls’ clothes while they were at gym during swim class and throw them on the roof of the school. Instead of calling for a teacher, Beca took it upon herself to climb a tree (while still in her bathing suit and barefoot) to get to the roof. Unfortunately, it was easier to climb up then down and she was stuck there and a teacher had to be called. She got in so much trouble but she wanted to make sure Chloe had her clothes and wasn’t walking around in just her bathing suit and towel for longer than necessary. 

“You know you’re not really Spider-Man, right?” Chloe had told her when she finally got down from the roof and after lots of talking between Warren and the principal, she only got one detention. 

Beca had rolled her eyes at herself. “Well, yeah, because Spider-Man would’ve known how to get down.” 

They had laughed about it throughout the day until Beca got home and got grounded for a month. She thought it was worth it.

“Mom, trust me, I won’t do anything stupid,” Beca says rather unconvincingly. 

“Beca, I know this has to do with Chloe so I’m just asking you to be smart, okay?” She gives Beca that mom glare she’s so used to.

“Yes, mom, I promise.” She salutes at her for good measure but Donna just rolls her eyes before finally leaving. And if on cue, her phone vibrates with Jesse’s incoming call.

“Whatcha got for me?” She says when slides to answer and cradles her phone between her ear and shoulder.

“Well for starters, I’m a little concerned at how easy it was to get into students’ personal files,” Jesse starts and she can hear clicking of computer keys in the background. “But Alice doesn’t have any real disciplinary complaints against her.”

Beca groans. “Seriously? Not one?”

“Well, there are some stuff marked ‘internal resolution’ so it didn’t warrant any follow up.”

“Well that’s useless. ‘Internal resolution’ also known as Alice threatening whoever she bullied.” Beca grumbles and saves her file on her computer. “Anything else?”

“Yup, you’re going to love me for this.” Jesse sounds giddy and Beca sits up straighter.

“What did you find?”

“Well, since I found nothing in her school files, I decided to search her email.”

Beca widens her eyes. “Dude, you hacked her email? Jesse, I didn’t ask you to do that.” Beca feels her stomach turn in knots at the risk Jesse just took. School files were one thing but Alice’s personal email was too much.

“Relax, Beca, I hacked her school email since it’s part of the same server.”

Her heart rate returns to normal. “Oh, okay. What did you find?”

“Alice is really dumb for one. She uses her school email for personal shit including emailing her friends and buying essays online.”

“Everyone buys essays though,” Beca points out. She’s never done it herself but she knows a lot people have. But she could still use that since the school for some reason cares more about cheating than bullying. 

“Right, but usually people use their personal emails to buy them. You can get her for cheating and using her school email to do so.”

Beca contemplates for a second. “But how would we let someone know she’s doing it? It’s not like they actually audit our school emails even though they threaten us saying that our emails are being watched.” She rolls her eyes. They all signed some contract when they were assigned an email address. The school had every right to monitor their school emails but everyone knew they never actually did. Not one teacher had the time or patience for that. 

“What else are you thinking?” Jesse asks after a few moments of silence.

“What do her emails to her friends say?”

She hears him clicking and scrolling and mumbling under his breath. “Mostly class notes exchanges and complaints about classes and teachers.” She hears another click. “Oh shit.”

“What?” Beca demands. “What did you find?”

“I’m checking her drafts and she had started an email to Elizabeth Schaeffer about today’s competition and it says something about kicking Chloe off the team right after they announce winners and lie to Coach Eisley and say that Chloe causes a lot of drama on the squad.”

Beca feels her blood boil. “Why the fuck would she even email that?”

“Like I said, she’s really dumb,” Jesse says with amusement. “She probably realized how dumb because the email never finished. Probably decided to text her instead and didn’t delete the draft.”

Beca runs a hand through her hair trying to figure out what to do next. “What if,” she grins and she hears Jesse actually take a deep breath. “What if that email accidentally gets sent to Coach Eisley?”

“Bec, are you sure?”

“Yes, it’s what she deserves. Unless it can be traced back to you? Then no.” The last thing Beca wanted was for Jesse to get in trouble on her behalf.

“No, because her and I are in the same second period computer class and it’d be really easy to remote into her email from where I am and send it.”

Beca’s not quite sure she understood what he just said but if it’ll expose Alice for what she is, she’s all for it. “So, you don’t mind sending it on Monday?”

“No, but if we get in trouble for this…”

“Don’t worry, Jesse, I have a get out jail free card in the form of Warren Mitchell.” Beca isn’t quite sure her dad can get them out of hacking the system but she’s confident that Jesse is smart enough to cover his tracks. And Barden High really doesn’t take too much stock in internet security anyways. 

“Okay, remember I’m only doing this because you’re my friend and what Alice did to Chloe is awful.”

“Thanks, Jesse.” She hangs up her call and takes a deep breath. Beca is fully aware how insanely elaborate this was to expose Alice without actually outing her and Chloe. This way, it can never be traced back to them and easily be written off as accidentally sending an email. And it wasn’t like she wrote a fake email using Alice’s name. The email was already written by her and Beca was just hitting send. It does help that Coach’s Eisley first name was also Elizabeth and Alice’s friend had the same name. She could’ve easily sent it to the wrong person. 

Beca glances back at her phone and sees unread texts from Chloe. They’re mostly emojis and responses to the copious amounts of puppy videos she sent but it still makes Beca smile. She hits the call button and Chloe picks up after one ring.

“Hi,” Chloe says softly over the phone. 

“Hi,” Beca replies and goes to her bed to lie down. “Did you talk to your parents?”

“Yeah, I lied and said I got cut from the team for poor performance.” Beca can hear sadness and bitterness in her voice. “I don’t think they really believed me but are being very supportive regardless.”

“I’m sorry, Chlo.” Beca pulls a pillow to her chest and squeezes it against her. “I promise I’ll fix this.” She debates whether or not to tell Chloe her plan but she’s not even sure it’ll get her the results she wants. She also knows Chloe would not approve of her breaking so many school rules to do it. 

“Bec, can we just talk about something else?” She sounds tired so Beca agrees and switches the subject. 

“Well not to stress you out more but we actually need to finish our project.” They had a great start but haven’t worked on it since they got together. 

Chloe laughs. “Oh yeah that. Remind me to send Ms. Henderson flowers or a gift basket once we’re done.”

“Why?” Beca smiles at the sound of Chloe’s laugh.

“Well, if it wasn’t for her, who knows where’d we be now?”

Beca doesn’t want to think of that. “We’ll get a gift basket,” she jokes and Chloe laughs again. “Do you want to come over tomorrow and work on it?”

“Can we do other things too?” Chloe’s voice is low and Beca finds herself sinking into her bed. 

“We can do whatever you want,” Beca squeaks out and internally groans. She has no idea how Chloe can turn her into a blubbering mess.

Chloe chuckles. “I’ll keep that in mind. I gotta go Bec, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye.”

***

“Oh yeah, mom. Chloe’s coming over today to work on our project,” Beca tells her over breakfast.

Donna narrows her eyes. “Are you actually going to work on the project though?”

Beca gasps in mock offense. “Of course, mother, we are not slackers.”

“I was mostly talking about that thing on your neck.”

Beca immediately covers her neck where the hickeys were still very visible from Friday night. She didn’t bother to cover them up that morning. “They’re bug bites,” she says lamely.

Donna snorts. “Okay, honey, bug bites. Just make sure you leave your door open when Chloe comes over.”

“Mom!” She now says completely embarrassed. Her entire face is now red. 

“I’m happy for you, Beca, I really am but you do know there are still rules.” Donna looks at her sternly. “You can do whatever you want when I’m not around, I obviously can’t stop you but you stay safe. Chloe may not be able to get you pregnant but STIs are not exclusive to heterosexual couples.”

“Mom, please!” Beca exclaims and wants to cover her ears. She already got the sex talk with her mom when she started to hang with Jesse more and that was mortifying. They weren’t even dating. She definitely wasn’t ready for the sex talk involving Chloe. “We’re not,” she takes a deep breath. “We just made it official, mom.”

Donna nods understanding. “Okay, I just want you to make good decisions, honey. I completely trust you and Chloe not to be reckless. I did some research the other day about how girls-”

“Mom, for the love of god, please stop talking.” Beca would do anything for an interruption. Or for the floor to open and swallow her.

Donna reaches over to pat her hand. “I’m just saying that I’m here if you ever need advice.”

“Thanks,” she grits out and then stands up. “I’m gonna go and be somewhere not here.” Beca quickly puts her dishes in the sink and runs upstairs, trying to erase the conversation from her mind. She was really looking forward to Chloe coming over so they can be sneaky in her room but her mom definitely ruined those plans. 

When Chloe comes over a couple hours later, she definitely notices something completely off when she leans over to kiss her. “Is everything okay?” She asks worriedly when Beca turns her head so the kiss lands on her cheek.

“My mom sucks,” is all Beca says before turning back around to walk back to her room. She explains the conversation she had to Chloe and Chloe doubles over with laughter.

“Oh my god, at least she’s being supportive?”

“Too supportive!” Beca exclaims and points to her computer screen. “She sent me links, Chloe.”

Chloe goes over to her desk and sees the web link her mom sent her. She hadn’t clicked on it but the auto generated thumbnail was in the email. The title “Lesbian Safe Sex Tips” in big font.

“Oh my god,” Chloe says and laughs again. “Babe, this is hilarious.”

“It’s mortifying!” She’s red again and puts her face in her hands. “And a total mood killer.”

“Aw, Bec,” Chloe practically coos at her and pulls her hands away from her face and holds them. “Trust me, I can get you in the mood if you really want me to.”

Beca bites her lip at the way Chloe is looking at her. “We should at least try to work on a project? And you know, wait for my mom to leave the house.”

Chloe agrees to that and they start working on their project. It was a stark contrast from when they first initially started now they were actually together now. They both were on Beca’s bed, side by side, with their laptops on their laps. The silence was anything but awkward and every once in a while Chloe would run her hand up and down Beca’s arm. Beca would notice that Chloe would daze off and had a sad look on her face. She could only assume she was thinking about getting kicked off the team and it fueled Beca’s anger a little more. Jesse was texting her sporadically that Alice had been sending heinous emails back and forth with her friend about Chloe. Beca hopes she continues to dig herself into a hole until she can carry out her plan. 

“Okay, my eyes are swimming,” Chloe announces after an hour and a half of working nonstop. She stretches and closes her laptop screen. “I think we’re pretty much done.” 

Beca finishes up typing as well and saves her work. She closes her laptop and sets it aside. “I think you’re right.” 

“Should we celebrate?” Chloe asks and waggles her eyebrows, making Beca laugh.

“Um, hold on.” She gets up to go to her window and sees her mom’s car not in the driveway. “Mom’s gone. We’re good.” Beca tries not to skip back to her bed.

“Come here,” Chloe says and puts her laptop aside and pats her lap. Beca bites her lip and climbs over Chloe so she’s perched comfortably on her lap. “You’re so pretty,” Chloe says as she holds onto her hips.

Beca smiles and runs her fingers through Chloe’s soft hair. “Have you looked in the mirror lately? You’re fucking gorgeous.”

Chloe smiles back but Beca can tell it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She knows the whole thing that happened yesterday is still rightfully bugging her. 

“Chloe, we can just talk,” Beca says as she continues to run her fingers through Chloe’s hair in a soothing manner. Chloe actually closes her eyes.

“Bec, I really don’t want to. I just want to be with you right now. You’re my happy place.” She opens her eyes and pushes Beca’s hair back, revealing the marks on her neck. She runs her fingers over them causing Beca to shiver. “Can we just kiss and forget everything for a while?”

“Okay,” Beca whispers and leans in to kiss her. She feels Chloe’s entire body relax the second their lips touch and Beca feels light. Knowing she has that effect on Chloe makes her heart soar. 

***

“Are we good to go?” Beca asks the second she gets into Jesse’s car.

“Yup,” Jesse says and pulls out of her driveway. “Gonna quickly log into her station while everyone is still scrambling before class starts and send the draft. I’m sure Alice would be expelled by lunch.”

“Good,” Beca says angrily. She cannot wait to be rid of her.

Chloe was waiting in the parking lot when they pull up and Beca smiles so wide that Jesse teases her that her teeth were blinding him.

“Hi,” Chloe greets her with a smile although she looks nervous. “Can I walk you to your locker?”

“Of course,” Beca says, smiling back. 

“I’m good ladies, thanks,” Jesse says sarcastically when they don’t even acknowledge him. Beca just gives him a cheeky smile.

“It feels weird not meeting up with the team in the morning,” Chloe says when they enter the school. 

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Beca asks as she tries to dodge everyone. Chloe navigates her way a lot easier since it seems like people still part like the Red Sea for her.

“It’s a dumb power play,” Chloe says bitterly. “Alice needs everyone to know that cheerleaders rule the halls so we got to travel in packs. Even when our classes are in opposite direction of our morning ‘path.’” 

Beca’s anger bubbles more when they finally reach her locker and opens it. She takes out all her necessary books and was about to close it again when Chloe holds it open. “What?” She asks curiously. 

“I didn’t know you still had that,” Chloe says pointing at something on the inside of her locker door. 

Beca sees that it was an old picture of them both when they were about 8 hanging upside from the monkey bars. It was one of the pictures Beca found in her Chloe box and decided to put it in her locker. “I found it a couple of weeks ago,” Beca says smiling.

“Look how little we were,” Chloe says laughing. “I mean, you’re still the same size.”

“Hey,” Beca says in mock offense and closes her locker. “You’re like an inch taller than me.”

Chloe’s still laughing when the warning bell rings and they both see the cheerleaders making their daily walk. Alice doesn’t even glance their way and Aubrey stares at Chloe with apologetic eyes but Chloe just looks away. “I should get to class,” Chloe says once they pass by. She gives Beca a small smile and squeezes her arm before heading down the hall. 

“You ready?” Jesse asks, walking up to her once Chloe leaves.

“Very.”

Beca is nervous the entire day especially during second period when she receives a text from Jesse that just said “done.” She tries to text him towards the end of the hour to see if Alice gets taken out of that class but she figures Jesse would tell her if she did.

By the time rolls around, Beca looks around for Alice but sees her nowhere in sight. Which doesn’t mean a lot since the cheerleaders sometimes don’t even eat lunch. Chloe was nowhere to be found either which made her worry.

“Beca, relax,” Jesse says as he watches her look around the whole cafeteria. “I’m sure Coach Eisley doesn’t check her email as often as other teachers.”

Beca ignores him when she sees Chloe walking towards their table. “Um, an interesting thing just happened,” Chloe says once she reaches the table.

“Oh?” Beca asks, trying to sound surprised. “What?”

“I just left a meeting with the principal and Coach Eisley, Alice and Liz just got expelled and I’m back on the team.” She squints at Beca. “Beca, what did you do?”

Beca tries to look as shocked as possible. “Nothing! Chloe, this is great! Well, obviously not for Alice and Liz, but yay!”

Chloe smiles at her enthusiasm for a second before giving her a serious look. “Bec, please tell me you didn’t do anything to make this happen.”

Jesse gets up quickly and grabs his lunch. “Benji and I are going to study.” Benji was just making his way to the table when Jesse diverts him so Beca and Chloe could be alone. 

“Chloe,” Beca starts when the boys leave. “I didn’t do anything. I can assure you whatever Alice did to get expelled was her fault entirely.”

Chloe squints at her, not quite believing her. “The only thing they told me was Alice violated several school rules and that me getting kicked off the team was in poor judgement.”

“Which is true,” Beca points out. “Chloe, this is a good thing.”

“I know it is, but I don’t want my very impulsive girlfriend to get in trouble because of me.” Chloe reaches out to take her hand. “Babe, I know you had something to do with this, can you promise me you didn't do anything _too_ bad to make it happen?”

Beca smiles. “Chloe, I promise I’d fix this and I did. Don’t worry, okay?”

Chloe bites her lip but eventually smiles back. “Always saving me, huh, Spider-Man?”

“Always.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the penultimate chapter! Just one more (short one) after this. Thanks everyone who's reading and commenting.
> 
> This chapter is rated a hard T or can also be rated M.

True to high school drama, there were about a thousand rumors as to why Alice got expelled. Some ranged from her getting caught selling drugs to a teacher finding a scrapbook in her locker filled with locks of hair from previous Barden Knights head cheerleaders. Beca may have started that rumor so she could fuel her “Alice is really a serial killer” theory. But in the end, Alice actually took to a twitter rant that she got expelled for buying essays online. Only Beca and Jesse knew the real reason and Alice was actually smart enough not to divulge that she kicked Chloe off the team for being a homophobic asshole. The cheating was just an added bonus.

Over the next few days, every student’s email was finally being “audited” and a few were suspended for a week or got detentions for misuse of their email addresses. Beca couldn’t believe how dense some people could be for using their school emails for anything personal. Beca hears that some jock used it to sign up for a porn site. She assumes it was Tom but she doesn’t have proof. 

“Dude, look alive!” Jesse hisses at her while she’s scrolling through her twitter feed at work. People from school have been tweeting about the email audit using the hashtag “bardenemailgate” and Beca falls down that rabbit hole.

Beca quickly puts her phone away in time for Jesse to drop a box in her hands. “Sorry,” she says apologetically and stacks it where it’s supposed to be. “Just trying to catch up on the drama.”

Jesse snorts. “Beca Mitchell interested in high school drama? Who would’ve thought?”

“Shut up,” she says grabbing another box from him. “Just making sure that none of our names get brought up during this.”

“We’re blips on the radar, Bec. Relax.” He helps her put a box on a high shelf. “No one even knows that Chloe was kicked off the team.”

Which was true, Beca thinks. Chloe was barely off the team before Alice was expelled and Aubrey was made captain. They already replaced Alice and Liz with Flo and Stacie and were already practicing for finals.

Chloe’s never been happier. Beca thought she forgave Aubrey too easily though but she knows that’s none of her business. As long as Chloe was happy, that’s all Beca cared about.

“Why is this box marked with your name?” Jesse asks, picking up a large box and inspecting it.

“Because I bought it, loser,” Beca says, rolling her eyes. “Be careful.” She takes it from him gingerly and sets it in the back by her things. She hasn’t quite made the transaction yet but she told Luke to hold it for her until he can deduct it off her next paycheck. 

“You worked enough to pay for that mixing console?” Jesse asks in awe. “Have you been working without me?”

“It’s not the console. I’m nowhere near working enough to pay for that yet.” She finishes up stacking the rest of the boxes and heads back out to the front. The store was closing soon and there were only a few random kids playing with the interactive instruments. 

“Whatcha get?” Jesse starts their end of the day routine of making sure things were locked and put away. 

“Stop being nosy,” Beca says as she closes up the register. “Hey, kidlets!” She calls to the kids. “We’re closing, get out of here.”

They all roll their eyes but do as they’re told but not without a few choice words under their breath. 

“Oh so it’s for Chloe, then.” Jesse has that stupid grin on his face that Beca hates so much.

“Shut up.” They close up the shop and head out to the parking lot but Beca stops when she sees Chloe parked next to Jesse’s car with a big smile on her face. 

“Did you come here from practice?” Beca asks, practically running to her.

“Yeah, I figured I’d take you out for a late dinner.” She reaches over to pull Beca close to her and gives her a light peck on the lips. Chloe’s in her sweats and glasses and it makes Beca feel warm all over.

“Night, ladies,” Jesse says, still grinning.

“Night, Jesse,” Chloe says back. They wave bye to him as he drives off.

“I think he knows he’s the permanent third wheel now,” Beca says laughing, as she gets in the passenger side of Chloe’s car. “Or he’s just happy he doesn’t have to be my chauffeur anymore.”

“Oh, is that what I am to you now?” Chloe jokes as she starts the car. “Your personal driver?” 

“Yes,” Beca deadpans. “Just using you for rides.” Chloe quirks her eyebrow and Beca blushes at her unintentional innuendo. “Shut up, you know what I mean.”

Chloe laughs and reaches over the center console to rub on the inside of Beca’s thigh. “I wouldn’t mind you using me for _rides_ ,” she says in that low voice that makes Beca shiver. 

They end up eating at their favorite diner they haven’t been to in the years they weren’t talking. The server was really excited to see them again and even gave them a free dessert. Beca and Chloe fight over the bill for a few minutes before deciding to split it. They share their free dessert which they chose as a ginormous glass of strawberry milkshake with two straws. For the first time, Beca doesn’t mind being a cliché. Plus Chloe looks really cute with whipped cream on her nose. 

Chloe drives them to the park afterwards which was already closed but they go in anyway. They find themselves in one of the tubed slides but soon find out they are a lot bigger now than they were when they were 8. 

“We fit better in here when we were kids,” Chloe points out as they try to find a comfortable position. She’s on top of Beca but bumps her head when she lifts it a little to get more comfortable.

“This is super sexy,” Beca says sarcastically and laughs when Chloe rubs at her head.

“Shut up.” She leans down to kiss her and shifts her leg so it’s between Beca’s thighs. It was a very tight fit and very uncomfortable but Beca didn’t care because Chloe was doing that thing with her tongue. 

“Chloe,” she moans out loud when she feels Chloe’s mouth shift to her neck. No doubt leaving another set of hickeys. Her previous ones were just fading. 

“Beca,” Chloe moans back and moves her knee against Beca’s center making her gasp. 

Beca didn’t know she could want someone as much as she wanted Chloe. The way her body reacts to every touch and kiss. The sounds Chloe makes and the way she moves against her body. Even now when they’re squeezed in a slide meant for kids and Chloe’s glasses press against Beca’s nose uncomfortably.. Also the fact they were doing this in a public place turns Beca on even more. She really never thought she’d be an exhibitionist. 

Beca groans and moves her hands so they’re under Chloe’s sweatshirt. She needs to feel her. Chloe’s muscles twitch under her fingers as she slips them under Chloe’s sports bra to thumb at her nipples. They harden at her touch and Chloe jumps when she pinches them and hits her head again.

“Ow!” Chloe exclaims and Beca can’t help but burst in laughter. 

“Oh my god, babe,” Beca says through laughter and reaches out to rub at Chloe’s head.

“This was a whole lot more romantic in my head,” Chloe says and starts laughing too. “I think we’ve killed the mood though.” She wiggles off Beca and exits the slide and holds her hand out to Beca. 

“You okay to drive home? You didn’t get a concussion did you?”

Chloe playfully glares at her and pokes at her cheek. “You want to walk home, Mitchell?”

Beca just grins and reaches over to straighten out Chloe’s glasses. “We need to plan a little better.”

“I thought you liked spontaneity,” Chloe says, pulling her against her again. Despite the warm weather, Beca shivers.

“I do, but not when we risk you getting a head injury.”

They laugh on their way back to Chloe’s car, holding hands and swinging them between each other. If anyone asks, Beca would consider this their first date.

***

“Alright, the dreaded day has finally come upon us,” Ms Henderson dramatically says to a classroom full of bored students. “Your projects were technically due last week but you all didn’t even notice I gave you a whole week extension,” she deadpans and Beca snorts. Of course her and Chloe knew because they used that extra time to “work on their project” by making out in her room, Chloe’s room, in the back stacks of the library during free period. Bless Ms. Henderson. 

“Who wants to present first?”

To no one’s surprise, no one volunteers and everyone just sinks in their desks more. 

“We’ll go!” Amy finally says and heads to the front of the class with Stacie following her.

“The stage is yours,” Ms. Henderson says and dramatically waves them to the front.

Beca suffers extreme secondhand embarrassment as Amy and Stacie present their project. They decided to do some weird interpretive dance showcasing the life and disappearance of Amelia Earhart. The entire class erupts in laughter and Beca can’t help but stare at Chloe who’s trying to contain her own giggles. Chloe catches her and smiles.

Beca’s never been so in love. 

Amy and Stacie end their presentation and they get an actual standing ovation. They bow before heading back to their seats.

“That was...something,” Ms. Henderson says with wide eyes. “Good job, ladies. Very, um, informative.” The girls high five each other, clearly proud of themselves. “Anyone else?”

Other students present their projects albeit a lot less dramatic than their predecessor. A lot of people did the actual social media thing and made up fake twitter accounts and hashtags. There was only fifteen minutes left of class when Chloe raises her hand to volunteer next and Beca freaks out.

“Chloe,” she whispers harshly. “I don’t want to go yet.” But it was too late and Ms. Henderson already picks them.

Beca turns red as she follows Chloe to the front of the class. They had decided to do a fake news report and be co-anchors breaking the story of the Salem Witch Trials. Chloe had written out a really decent script but they didn’t rehearse it a lot. Other things always got in the way like making out.

“Come on, Bec, you’ll be fine and we can get it over it.”

Chloe pulls a spare table to the front and two chairs to be their desk. They each put a copy of the script in front of them and Chloe immediately gets in character.

“And following our breaking story, another woman has just been accused of witchcraft and was arrested this morning. That marks the fourth person this week,” Chloe begins in a very news anchory way. Beca can’t help but smile at how extremely talented her girlfriend is. She’s so enthralled that she completely misses her cue to come in.

“And now to Beca Mitchell with eyewitness statements,” Chloe says, pointedly looking at her. “Bec,” she stage whispers when Beca is still staring. 

“Oh right!” Beca turns to the class who actually look super intrigued and she turns red again and clears her throat. “A local neighbor claims he saw Sarah Good go into the woods last night to meet with a hooded figure which he believes to be the Devil in disguise…”

They finish their presentation to applause and Ms. Henderson looks very impressed. The bell rings shortly and Beca still feels her face is red from stage fright and general embarrassment but Chloe links arms with her as they walk down the halls and whispers in her ear.

“You did so good, Beca.”

The statement makes Beca feel like her entire body is on fire and she wonders if she’ll remain flushed for the rest of the day. 

Chloe has cheerleading practice after school and Beca is thankful their practices are not as demanding as when Alice was captain. She actually got to see her during the week and Chloe isn’t sore and exhausted afterwards. 

Beca’s mom on the phone when she gets home trying to calm down whoever is on the other end. She furrows her eyebrows in worry as she listens to the one sided conversation. 

“Okay, I’ll be there soon.” Her mom finishes her phone call and hangs up.

“Is everything okay?” Beca asks.

Donna sighs and opens something up on her phone. “Oh yes, no one’s dying or anything. My friend in Chicago is just panicking because the artist she agreed to host his installation at her studio decided to be, well a man, and backed out last second because he needed more recognition than her little ‘no name’ studio.” She rolls her eyes and she continues to scroll through her phone. “So I’m going up there this weekend to help her clean up his mess and change her entire line up to local independent artists and host their work instead.”

Beca feels bad for her mom’s friend but her ears perked up at her mom saying she’s heading to Chicago. “That sucks, when do you have to leave?” Beca tries to sound as nonchalant as possible but her mom is already narrowing her eyes.

“I’m looking for flights for Thursday right now,” she says and clicks on something on her phone. “So yes, honey, you and Chloe can be alone this weekend.”

Beca really wishes she could stop blushing. “Mom, that’s so not what I was thinking,” she lies.

Donna just shakes her head. “Okay honey, just make sure you wash your sheets this weekend too.”

“Mom! God, have a good trip.” She quickly exits the kitchen and runs up to her room. She really wishes her mom would stop making those comments. Beca takes out her phone to text Chloe even though she knows she’s still at practice.

 **Beca:** **  
**_mom’s going to chicago this weekend. we’ll have the house to ourselves if you want to have a sleepover._

She bites her lip before sending a winky face emoji too. Chloe doesn’t text her back for another hour.

**Chloe:**

_I’ll be there._

Beca smiles. The text was followed by a bunch of lewd emojis.

***

Against her better judgment, Beca does click on the link her mom sent her about safe sex just out of curiosity. Chloe had a short cheerleading meeting right after school and was going to head over afterwards and Beca was beyond nervous and wanted to be as prepared. Which was ridiculous because she knows there’s no really any way to properly prepare for this. The link was very informative but also very clinical and not exactly what she had in mind.

(She watches a few pornhub links just in case but those weren’t helpful either.)

The doorbell rings before she knows it and Beca straightens out her clothes and hair before running downstairs to open the door. Chloe was in her comfy clothes and glasses again which Beca assumes she just does on purpose after her little confession of finding them hot on her.

“Hi,” Chloe greets and immediately kisses her.

“Hi,” Beca says back smiling. She’s very tempted to just grab Chloe’s hand and head to her room but she didn’t want to seem that desperate. Which she was but Chloe didn’t need to know that right now. 

They eat dinner and end up watching more Criminal Minds episodes but it’s not long before they’re making out on the couch. Beca’s on her back before she knows it with Chloe hovering over her. Her hands are wandering under her shirt and bra, caressing and pinching her breasts and nipples. Beca likes that she doesn’t have to hold back her loud moans. 

She scratches at Chloe’s back and is actually determined to leave marks the way Chloe is always marking her neck. 

“You’re feisty today,” Chloe says, grinning when Beca rakes her fingers up and down her back.

Beca just grins and does it again. “Pay back for all these damn hickeys you keep leaving on my neck.”

Chloe pulls down on the collar of her shirt to kiss the most recent hickeys. “You love it when I mark you.” 

Beca smiles and brings her hand up to cup Chloe’s cheek. “I love _you._ ”

She feels Chloe’s smile against her hand and suddenly her eyes are filling with tears. “I love you, too, Beca. So much.” Chloe leans down to kiss her and Beca knows this one is different.

“Do you want to go to my room?”

Chloe doesn’t say anything but gets up and holds her hand out to her. She leads them to Beca’s room and suddenly Beca’s not nervous anymore. They undress each other slowly, kissing each other everywhere as they do. Beca wonders if Chloe can feel her heart beating fast when she kisses her on top of her breast.

Chloe lays her down gently on the bed and hovers over her, hand running up and down her body before stopping right between her open legs. Beca can feel how wet she is and slowly spreads her legs wider for Chloe.

“Can I touch you?” She says it so softly that Beca almost doesn’t hear her.

All she can do is nod and she gasps at the feeling Chloe touching her for the first time. Chloe’s slow and gentle, fingers exploring as she watches Beca’s face for any sign of discomfort. 

“Chloe,” Beca chokes out when she feels her fingers rub against her clit in tight circles. God it felt good, but she needed more.

“Do you want me to stop? Chloe’s voice is low and raspy and she moves straddle Beca’s leg. The immediate wetness she feels against her skin makes her moan. 

“God, no, I just want,” she stops. “More?” She says, not quite sure she can convey what she wants in coherent words. She also wants to touch Chloe too. 

Chloe just nods and dips her fingers lower and enters her with one. When Beca moans again, it gives her the encouragement to add another finger and uses her thumb in tandem to rub at her clit.

“Oh my god,” Beca practically screams and her hips rise from the bed. “That feels so good.”

Chloe has a smug grin. “Yeah?” She moves her fingers faster and harder.

“Fuck!” She pulls Chloe’s face down to kiss her. “Can I touch you, too?”

“Please.” 

Beca wastes no time running her hand down Chloe’s stomach and in between her legs. The wetness she feels when her fingers graze against Chloe’s clit makes Beca groan again and she rubs against it, in sync with the way Chloe’s own fingers move against her.

“Inside, Bec, please,” Chloe says wantonly. 

Beca does as she is told and enters Chloe’s with two fingers. She moves them experimentally and watches Chloe’s face to see what she likes. It’s a little awkward at first because Beca hasn’t done this with anyone except herself. She tries to do what works for her and it seems like following her instincts pay off when Chloe lets out a loud moan. Beca beams with pride. 

“Fuck, baby, just like that.” Chloe closes her eyes and leans her forehead against Beca’s and it doesn’t take them long to find a rhythm. 

Beca comes first with a loud cry but Chloe doesn’t stop moving her fingers so Beca redoubles her efforts. The angle was hard on her wrist but the look of pure lust and want on Chloe’s face makes her forget the slight cramping pain when Chloe comes shortly after.

They both breathe hard as Chloe moves to get off her and collapses beside her instead. “You okay?” She asks after a few moments and goes to cuddle Beca.

“More than,” Beca replies with a laugh and kisses the closest skin she can find without moving. She ends up kissing Chloe’s arm. Her entire body was buzzing. She felt like she was floating and she swears she sees stars. 

“I love you,” Chloe whispers against her.

“I love you, too.”

“I can’t believe we get to do this all weekend.” Chloe lifts her head and leans it against her hand. She has that glint in her eye again. “Can I try something?”

Beca’s eyes widen with excitement and she nods eagerly. Before she knows it, Chloe descends her body and spreads her legs. Beca feels her entire brain short circuit and her last coherent thought was Chloe winking up at her before she feels her tongue against her center.

Beca never wants the weekend to end. 


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is! The last chapter which is just a short/epilogue-ish chapter. Thank you SO much to everyone who has been reading and commenting on this. I honestly haven't written (and completed) a multichaptered fic in YEARS. So this was definitely a personal accomplishment. I'm probably going to be sticking to one-shots for now unless inspiration hits again.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed the ride!

Beca spent most of her teenage life trying hard not to be a teenage cliché but now she finds herself the embodiment of every one there is. For starters, she has become quite the insatiable hormonal teenager every single time she’s alone with Chloe. But Beca couldn’t help it. Her girlfriend was annoyingly perfect. It was impossible to not want to be close to her every second of every day. 

Beca never thought she could feel this way about high school. She wakes up actually looking forward to going to school because it means she can see Chloe. And ironically enough, Beca’s school work was prospering from being with Chloe all the time. They had made a deal that they would both complete their academic obligations before doing anything fun. It made study nights that much more interesting.

Except when SATS started to creep around the corner. Every junior taking it that year was feeling the stress. Beca’s mom has bought her about a million SAT prep books and gave her a stern talking about thinking about her future. Beca didn’t mind too much because that just meant more “study” time with Chloe.

Which is what they were doing on a Saturday afternoon in Chloe’s room. The door was open unfortunately after Chloe’s mom caught them one time in a very heated make out session. Beca was so embarrassed that she almost fell out of the bed. Chloe barely even blushed and all they got was a warning of keeping it G rated when parents are home.

“Okay, next question,” Beca says reading from one of the practice books. They’re both lying in Chloe’s bed with books between them to prevent premature touching. Chloe’s wearing her glasses which made it even harder for Beca to concentrate. “If train A leaves New York City going west at 100 mph.” She pauses and watches as Chloe writes in her notebook. “And train B leaves Los Angeles going east at 110 mph, how long will it take for you to take off my clothes?”

Chloe looks up abruptly from her notebook and playfully glares at Beca. Beca just grins. “You’re a brat,” Chloe says and reaches over to take the book from her. “We’re supposed to be studying, Beca.”

Beca laughs and stretches. “We’ve been studying for an hour and it’s a Saturday. I’m bored,” she pouts.

“Hmm, you mean you’re horny,” Chloe corrects and reaches over to run her finger at the little sliver of skin that was exposed when Beca stretched.

Beca jumps and grabs her hand and holds it. “Semantics.” She glances at the open door. “Can I have one kiss? It’s been like a hundred years since I kissed you.”

“You are so cute.” Chloe moves the books aside and reaches over to kiss Beca. Beca sighs against her mouth. It takes everything in her not to climb on top of Chloe but then she hears someone clear their throat and Beca pulls away so fast she almost gets whiplash.

“Ladies, what did I say?” Mrs. Beale says leaning against the door with an amused grin. 

“Sorry, mom, we were just taking a break,” Chloe says laughing a little and moves back to her side of the bed. Beca wants to hide under it. 

“Beca, honey, would you like to stay for lunch?” Beca just nods and tries to keep as much as distance between her and Chloe. “Alright, it’ll be ready in five minutes.” She gives them a stern look before heading back downstairs.

“Your parents need to wear bells,” Beca deadpans and gets off the bed. 

“You need to keep it in your pants,” Chloe counters and gets up as well. She stretches and Beca gets memorized at how flexible Chloe is. “What did I just say, Beca?” She asks when she catches her staring.

“Stop being so hot,” Beca says with a smile.

“Shut up and let’s go downstairs before I take you here and now.”

Eating with the Beales is always fun because of how funny Chloe’s dad is and how sweet her mom is. It would’ve been annoyingly corny if it were anyone else, but Beca loves this family so much. They even share with Beca that they’ve been working with a pro bono lawyer to help with Stephen’s work injury. They had settled and Stephen can return to work with retro pay once his doctors clear him and the company is responsible for all his medical bills.

It was a pretty good afternoon.

“I have something for you,” Beca tells Chloe as she walks her home later in the day.

“Are you going to ask me to reach in your pocket?”

Beca playfully shoves her as they walk up Beca’s front door. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

“What, no quickie in your bedroom?” Chloe says winking.

“My mom’s home,” Beca points out even though she’s tempted. “Maybe later,” she rushes out before going inside. Chloe swats at her butt as she goes. Beca runs up to her room and grabs a large gift bag that says Happy Birthday on it and goes back downstairs. She blushes when Chloe sees the bag and her face lights up.

“My birthday’s in the summer, Beca,” Chloe says with a smile but takes the bag from Beca.

“I know but I’ve missed your last three so,” she trails off. Every single time she thinks about missing Chloe’s birthday, it makes her sad. Considering Chloe had sent her a card every year the past three years. 

“Beca,” Chloe’s voice cracks as she starts to open the bag. “Oh my god, Beca.” She pulls out a large box and examines it. “You got me a record player?”

Beca smiles and nods. “Yeah, now you can play all those records you bought when you were stalking me.”

Chloe let’s out a laugh. “This is amazing. I love it.” She gently puts it back in the bag and pulls Beca into a hug and buries her face against her neck. “I love you.” She places a small kiss against Beca’s neck.

Beca squeezes back hard, trying to inject three years of feelings into the hug. “I love you, too.” 

Beca knows she’ll never be able to get the past three years back but she focuses on Chloe’s words on focusing on now and the future. She’s never been happier but she knows that there's still a shit ton of things her and Chloe have to go through. They’ve discussed “coming out” numerous times but decided that they’ll just continue to act the way they are now and not have a big announcement. They’ll take whatever comes their way head on and together. 

High school was still annoying and people still bumped into her like she was invisible but as long as Chloe was by her side, Beca didn’t hate it anymore. 

_**END** _


End file.
